


Perfectly Mean

by Spinofflady



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Trauma, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mental Instability, Self-Harm, Trauma, httyd modern au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-09-14 13:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 47,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9183925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spinofflady/pseuds/Spinofflady
Summary: If Astrid Iona Hofferson were to be described in one word, it would be perfect. She was absolutely perfect. She was the envied, popular girl at school, and no one could ever surpass Astrid. She had perfect blue eyes and long, wavy, blond hair with a few hot pink and aqua streaks through it. She had the perfect body and perfect curves, with the perfect amount of muscle to go with it. She was a straight-A student and could flaunt a bikini like a supermodel. She did model, actually.But Astrid was mean.





	1. Mean With a Capital "M"

If Astrid Iona Hofferson were to be described in one word, it would be _perfect._ She was absolutely _perfect._ She was the envied, popular girl at school, and no one could ever surpass Astrid. She had perfect blue eyes and long, wavy, blond hair with a few hot pink and aqua streaks through it. She had the perfect body and perfect curves, with the perfect amount of muscle to go with it. She was a straight-A student and could flaunt a bikini like a supermodel. She _did_ model, actually.

She wasn’t afraid to get dirty or hurt, and she would often up-stage the “tough guys” at school. Once Big Sam, the school bully, got in a fight with her and broke her arm. Even so, she beat him up so bad he had to get stitches in four places.

But Astrid was _mean_. With a capital “M.” She was vicious, cruel, relentless, ruthless, and just plain _mean_. If you crossed her, her revenge would be so malicious you’d wish you were a little toad that got squashed in the middle of the road.

Her meanness probably came from her dad spoiling her rotten. He was a huge business man and was hardly ever home, so he made up for it by giving her everything a girl could possibly want. Unlike most girls, however, Astrid wanted horses. So her father bought a big ranch in Tennessee, and filled it with world famous horses. As soon as she got her way, Astrid was happy.

Astrid’s mom was a well-known psychologist, and she used their big ranch as a Retreat Center. Her sixteen year-old daughter was not at all pleased with having a bunch of crazy people around, but most of the time she ignored them. Her mom specialized in suicide counseling, and they often had extreme cases living with them.

Astrid may be downright mean, but her mother was the nicest woman in the world. She took in many depressed and suicidal teens in order to help them heal.

Astrid, of course, was never very happy with her mother’s “patients.” The crazier the client, the less time her mother spent with her. So you can imagine that she was particularly ticked when she found out who the newest patient was: a three time suicidal, self abusive teen.

Gail found her daughter in the barn, tacking up for a ride. She planned on telling Astrid about her next patient now so she could calm down before the patient actually got there. (Three days later… yes, it actually took her that long.)

Astrid was sitting on a tack box, lacing up her $911 _Sergio Grasso Imperia_ field boots.

“Hey, Ashe,” she greeted, using her daughter’s favorite nickname. She couldn’t stand being called “Asty.”

“Hey,” Astrid replied, standing up and brushing off her $310 _Pikeur Ciara Grip_ breeches. “What’s up?”

“The ceiling,” Gail said with a smile, starting the conversation off with their decade-old joke. “And I need to talk to you. I have a new patient coming in-”

“Oh, perfect,” Astrid groaned, slipping into her horse’s stall. “What nut job is coming now? A psychopath addicted to heroin?”

“Astrid, please. Try to be nice. They may be mentally ill, but they are still people.”

“Really? I thought they were animals.”

“Astrid!”

“What? Most of them act like it.”

“That is no way to talk, young lady. I understand it’s hard for you to have them around, but you need to treat them well. Now, I originally came to tell you who my new patient is.”

“What if I don’t care who it is?”

Gail ignored her. “His name is Hayden. He’s been though a lot, and he’s very sensitive, so please try to treat him like a human being.”

“Whatever. Like I care about his problems.” She put on her $700 _GPA First Lady_ helmet and led her _gorgeous_ million-dollar dappled grey Arabian mare Stormfly out of the barn.

Gail sighed and walked up to their multi-million dollar home. She watched her daughter canter across the pasture and clear a fallen log. Somehow she _had_ to get Astrid to start thinking about someone other than herself, but that would never happen if her father kept giving her everything she wanted. He may be trying to make her happy, but it only made her mean.

She wandered though the house and sat down in the living room, watching the maids clean the furniture. How could Astrid, who lived with such excessive luxuries, be so unbelievably self-centered? Gail bit her nail thoughtfully, her eyebrows furrowing in concern. A picture hanging on the wall caught her attention. It was a picture of her daughter, perhaps six years old. Her hair in little blond braids, her feet bare, and dressed in a simple summer outfit, the little girl was delightedly watching a bubble bee on a rose.

Gail loved that picture. It captured such innocence in her daughter, something that no one ever saw nowadays. Now it took something materialistic to make Astrid happy. She thought the world revolved around her. Which, living as she did now, everything did revolve around her.

She never had to clean her room or wash the dishes. She could go shopping anytime she wanted. There was a barn full of dream horses fifty feet from her door. She had parents who loved her. She a horse, two dogs, a cat, a blue and gold macaw, and a zebra; none of which she had to care for. What could possibly make her so bitter?

The phone rang and interrupted Gail’s thoughts. One of the maids left to answer it.

“Mrs. Hofferson,” she called, “It’s for you.”

Gail walked over to the phone and took it from the maid. She gave the hired help a quick nod of thanks. “Hello?”

“Dr. Hofferson?” The voice on the other end was deep and booming. She knew immediately who it was.

“Yes?”

“This is Steven Haddock. I’m calling about Hayden.”

“What can I do for you, Mr. Haddock?”

“My agent just called me and said that my meeting this weekend was bumped up to this Wednesday. I know I was supposed to bring Hayden on Thursday, but would it be possible for him to come today? I need to leave tomorrow for this meeting, but if I need to leave him with his aunt, that’s alright.”

Gail thought a moment. Astrid might be meaner if she hadn’t calmed down, but the more time she had with her patient, the better. “Of course he can come early!” She replied. “It’s probably better for his therapy anyway. It will give him more time to adjust.”

“Thank you so much.”

“You’re very welcome. I’ll see you later.”

“Goodbye.”

The other line went dead as Steven hung up. Gail set the phone down and called one of the maids over.

“What do you need, Ma’am?” she asked.

“Could you please make sure the blue guest room is ready? My patient is coming today.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The maid nodded and scurried up the stairs.

Gail wandered into her office, and began to clean her desk; a job the maids were not allowed to do. Astrid’s cat, Sir Tarlo, jumped up on her lap, and rubbed long white furs all over her navy blouse.

“Really?” Gail asked with a chuckle, “Must you ruin this shirt, too?” Sir Tarlo just purred and curled up on her lap, closing his ice-blue eyes. Sir Tarlo was about as rare as a cat could be. He was a pure white blue-eyed Turkish Angora. Astrid had seen a picture of one and asked her father for the cat. She hadn’t really wanted a cat; she just thought it was pretty. Dustin had spent a fortune on Sir Tarlo, some $26,000, and Astrid barely looked at the cat once a week. The only pets Astrid cared about was her horse and one of her dogs, a Brittany named Nova.

She sat thinking for a few minutes, praying that Astrid wouldn’t be so mean. Out of all the patients she had seen, Hayden seemed by far the most sensitive. She had not yet met the young man, but from what his father described, he was very depressed. One mean comment from Astrid could turn into a suicide attempt.

Gail heard a car in the driveway honk, and she glanced at the clock in surprise. How could he have gotten here so quickly? She had only sat down a few minutes ago! She realized she had been in her office for at least two hours. She pushed Sir Tarlo off her lap, did her best to de-hair herself, and walked out to greet her guests. 

She opened the front door, and she noticed Steven’s car parked in the gravel driveway. She briskly came over to greet them; brushing off her shirt just to be sure she wasn’t white. Sir Tarlo could shed like crazy.

“Welcome, Mr. Haddock!” She said warmly, reaching out to shake his hand. He smiled in return and grasped her hand firmly.

“It’s nice to see you again Dr. Hofferson.”

“Please, call me Gail.”

“Very well, Gail. I’m so glad Hayden could come early. I really didn’t want to leave him with his Aunt. She lives four hours away from us, and she is the closest family he has.”

Gail nodded. “I’m glad it worked out this way. Where is Hayden, by the way?”

Steven chuckled and gestured to the car. “Hiding,” he replied. “He’s the shyest kid on the planet.”

Gail chuckled as well. “That shouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure we can get him to come out of his shell.”

Steven grew serious. “I wouldn’t count on it. He’s been like this ever since his mother passed away. He won’t talk about anything personal with anyone, not even me.”

“Well, bringing him here was a start. Leave getting him to open up to me.”

Steven nodded and opened up the car door. “Alright, Hayden,” he said sternly. “Come out.”

Hayden reluctantly pulled himself out of the car, and stood next to his father. He had shaggy auburn brown hair and fearful green eyes. His nose was speckled with freckles, and he couldn’t be much taller than Astrid. He wore blue jeans and a long-sleeved green shirt with “Wild on the Inside” written on it.

“Hayden,” Steven began, “This is Dr. Gail Hofferson.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hayden said quietly, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.

“I’m very glad to meet you too,” Gail replied with a very large smile. “Now come inside. Jackson will get your bags.”

  The two followed Gail into the house, and the butler gathered Hayden’s bags and took them to his room. Gail led her guests to the sitting room, and seated them on the couch. “Can I get you something to drink?” She offered. “Coffee? Tea?”

“Coffee sounds wonderful,” Steven said with a smile. “Do you want anything, Hayden?”

“Water’s fine,” Hayden muttered, picking at his thumb.

The maid left the room, and soon returned with a tray. She left the tray on the table and walked back over to her place next to a pillar.

The three sat chatting for a half an hour, and finally Sir Tarlo decided to make his presence known. He strode into the room with his tail held high, and brushed up against the first person he saw. Steven.

Then man suddenly sneezed, scaring the cat, who in response, darted under the table. Sir Tarlo had always known to find safety with humans, so after the noise ended, he jumped up on Steven’s lap. The man began to sneeze again, and the terrified Sir Tarlo vaulted off his lap and onto the table. He slid across the wood and into the tray, knocking into Steven’s coffee. The cat was doused in dark brown coffee, and yowling, Sir Tarlo spun around and knocked Hayden’s water on the floor.

He jumped off the table and ran out of the room, leaving a trail of coffee prints behind him. At least six maids came running, and two of them went after the cat. The others tried to clean up the mess.

“I’m sorry,” Steven said, trying to help clean up the coffee. “I’m allergic to cats. If they touch me, I sneeze. It’s proven fact.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Gail insisted. “We needed a good comedy show!”

She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Hayden was actually smiling. Perhaps she would be able to help him heal after all.

“Well,” Steven said finally, “I had better get going. My flight leaves tomorrow, and I need to pack. If you don’t mind, I’ll just see myself out.”

“I’ll see you in a few months,” Gail answered, standing to see him off. Steven stood as well and shook her hand. He turned to Hayden.

“Well,” he said, “don’t cause any trouble. I’ll be back in before Christmas. And Remember, Hayden.” He gave his son a very stern and purposeful look, causing Hayden to drop his gaze. Steven smiled gently and walked around the back of the couch. He gave Hayden a quick pat on the shoulder. “See you, buddy!” he called on his way out the door.

Gail was slightly glad Steven had left. She knew that teens were almost always more willing to open up after their parents were gone.

“So Hayden,” she said, sitting back down. “What do you like to do for fun?”

At first she wasn’t she he would reply, but he finally shrugged and said: “I like to draw.”

“Very interesting! My mother was an artist. That’s some of her work over there.” Gail pointed to the painting on the wall.

Hayden stood and studied it thoroughly. He seemed to be examining every tiny detail. “She was really good,” he announced finally.

“She spent a long time getting there,” Gail said, “she wasn’t always that good.”

“She was never that good,” a voice from the doorway snapped.

Gail sighed and turned to face the one and only Astrid Hofferson, and yes, the one who excelled at being perfectly Mean.


	2. Social Media

Astrid wandered into the room and plopped down in a chair. She whipped out her 6s Diamond studded iPhone. “So I posted this selfie of me and Stormfly on Instagram earlier, and it already has 800 likes in a half hour! 500 more and I’ll break my own like per hour record!”

  
Gail sighed; it was just like Astrid to pretend that there was no one else in the room that mattered. “Astrid,” she began, “This is Hayden.”

  
“Sup,” Astrid muttered, her eyes never leaving her phone as she scrolled through her social media pages.

  
“Hayden,” Gail went on, ignoring Astrid’s behavior. “This is my daughter, Astrid.”

  
“Hi,” he greeted softly.

  
“Yeah, hi. Oh, look at this! That video I took of Sir Tarlo playing with that ice cube reached 2,000,000 views on YouTube!” She twisted in the chair and let her feet dangle over the arm.

  
“So as I was saying,” Gail continued, turning back to Hayden.

  
“Oh my gosh!” Astrid shouted suddenly. “I forgot to tweet my quote of the day!” She jumped up and ran up the stairs, darting into her bedroom.

  
“I’m sorry, Hayden,” Gail shook her head. “Astrid can be a little self-centered at times. Her father tends to spoil her, and it makes her think she is the center of the universe.”

  
“It’s okay,” Hayden replied, sitting back down on the couch. “My cousin thinks she’s the most important person on the face of the earth. I’m used to it.”

  
“I can’t imagine she’s worse than my daughter. But enough about Astrid. I’ll show you to your room.” Gail stood and led Hayden up the oak staircase, and passed Astrid’s bedroom. The door was open, and Gail caught sight of her daughter searching a book for a quote to use. She passed another two doors and finally stopped at the last door on the left before the hallway turned. “This is your room,” she told him, opening the door, revealing a large room with plenty of natural lighting.

  
“It’s…blue,” Hayden commented, stepping through the door. “I like blue.”

  
“Good,” Gail smiled as she walked out. “Your bags are over there. I’ll let you get settle in. Your welcome to explore outside when you're finished, but supper will be soon.”

  
Hayden nodded his thanks and gave a tiny smile, then began to unpack his bags. He silently put his clothes away in the drawers and closet, which was _huge_. He opened the gauzy curtains and sat down in the window seat. He had a perfect view of the barn and pastures. The lighting in this room was _perfect_ for painting. Or it would be, if he had something to paint with.

  
What was he doing here, anyway? He was surrounded by complete strangers, one of whom he was pretty sure hated him. He had always been shy, and now he was going to be forced to talk with a strange woman he’d never met about every aspect of his life. He didn’t want to be here, and if he’d had a choice, he wouldn’t be here. His father had made him. What did his father care? After that conversation the night before… Hayden shivered, pushing the unwelcome thoughts to the back of his mind.

  
His attention was drawn outside as he watched a black and white striped horse walk into view. Wait, it wasn’t a horse…it was a zebra! There was a zebra here! These people had to be filthy rich. Their house alone would cost a fortune, but the animals were priceless. He knew that the Turkish Angora from earlier probably cost around $20,000, more depending on its breeding.

  
He watched the zebra for some time, and soon noticed it didn’t like the hay it was eating. Funny. The zebra was a picky eater. As he stared at the barn and pastures, he noticed someone, probably a sable hand, lead a large solid black horse from the barn. The horse clearly did not like the person. It nipped at him viciously and pawed at the ground. It didn’t want to go in the pasture.

  
He gazed in awe at the horse’s powerful hind quarters, the sleek black coat seeming to glow in the setting sun. The muscular horse reared up a little, its ears pinned down against its head. Another man hurried out to help control the horse. He grabbed a hold of the lead rope and pulled it down, revealing a sturdy stallion chain. The horse finally reared up completely. The animal was a sight to behold. It formed a perfect black silhouette against the sunlight, pawing at the air with its front hooves.

  
The perfect vision only lasted for a moment. The horse lost its footing and toppled over, falling onto its side. The horse struggled to get up, flailing its legs wildly. Well, except one leg. The left hind leg was tense and didn’t move. No wonder the horse didn’t want to walk! He was lame!

  
Hayden felt a twinge of pity for the creature. His gaze dropped to his own left leg. Ever since the worst day of his life, he’d been classified as “lame.” (In the medical way. The other way had been since he was born.) That horrible, horrible day, when everything went wrong. Anger, hurt, and pain well up in his chest, and he cursed under his breath.

  
A sudden scratching noise came from the hallway; the sound of claws on wood floor. His door swung open, and an excited Brittany came barreling in.

  
“Nova! Get back here!” he heard someone call from down the hall. It sounded a lot like Astrid.

  
The dog didn’t respond at all. It just ran over to Hayden and started to lick his hands, sniffing him all over. A pink collar indicated that the dog was female, but Hayden checked anyway.

  
“Nova!” Astrid seemed more irritated this time.

  
Hayden scratched behind Nova’s high-set, floppy ears, and she wagged her short stub of a tail. Her amber eyes were bright as she smiled her doggy grin. She was an exceptionally well breed dog, Hayden noticed. It took an experienced breeder to raise a prized Brittany such as Nova. Her fur was fine, yet dense, and had just the right amount of feathering. He head was round and there was a distinct hollow at the start of her snout between her eyes. She also possessed the somewhat rare and beautiful “Liver and White” color.

  
“Nova! Get in here!” Astrid sounded thoroughly ticked.

  
“C’mon,” Hayden told the dog, grabbing her sparkly pink collar. “I think Astrid wants you back.” He had to lean sideways to reach the dog, but she came obediently. He knocked nervously on Astrid’s halfway open door.

  
“Come in,” came the annoyed reply.

  
“Hey,” Hayden started softly.

  
Deep growling erupted from the corner, followed by vicious barking. A massive German Shepherd charged at him, his fangs ready to tear Hayden to shreds.

  
“Hades, down,” Astrid muttered, turning the page of her book. Still snarling, the dog dropped to all fours. “Now go back to bed.” Eyeing Hayden warily, Hades walked back over to his bed and sat down, low growls still rumbling in his throat.

  
“I- uh, I brought your dog back,” Hayden explained, finally releasing Nova’s collar, finding some of the glitter had stuck to his sweaty palms.

  
“Yeah, thanks,” Astrid said absentmindedly. “You know any good quotes?”

  
Hayden swallowed. “What kind of quotes?”

  
“Like, good quotes. Not cheesy Shakespeare ones. Everyone quotes him. I want good, solid, original quotes. Got it?”

  
“Yeah.” Hayden didn’t particularly like how she’d just drafted him to be her quote-finding slave. “Do you need a particular theme?”

  
“Well…” Astrid picked up her phone and scrolled through a social page. “I just posted a new make-up look. Try something about beauty.”

  
“What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness.”

  
Astrid finally looked up. “Where’s that from?”

  
“ _A Shadow of the Night_ by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.”

  
A look of awe passed over Astrid’s face. “How’d you just know that off the top of your head?”

  
“I read a lot,” he replied simply.

  
“I like that one,” Astrid decided, typing in the quote and posting it with a #QOD. “You’ve got a nice sense of style. Social media style, not wardrobe style.”

  
“What’s wrong with my clothes?”

  
“They make you look really… gangly.”

  
“I am gangly.”

  
“More so.”

  
“Really?”

  
“Yeah. While you’re here, which of these pictures should post?” She held up her phone, showing him a picture of Nova. The dog was sitting on her bed, showing off her ridiculous doggy smile. “This one,” Astrid said, flipping to the next photo. “Or this one?” The other picture was of Nova as well. This time she was bowed down on her front paws, her eyes bright and ready to play.

  
“Out of those two, the second one,” Hayden began, “it shows action versus her just sitting there. But I actually wouldn’t use either.”

  
“Why?”

  
“The lighting is off. If you use the lighting right, it will make the red in her fur stand out more, and maybe even make her look golden.”

  
“Will that help it get more likes?”

  
“It should.”

  
Astrid sat up and climbed off her bed. “Since you know so much about visual enhancement, take a good picture of her for me.”

  
“I don’t know…”

  
Astrid narrowed her eyes. “Do it.”

  
“Okay. There’s a good spot in my room. The lighting was really good a few minutes ago.” Astrid grabbed Nova and followed Hayden back to his room.

  
The sun was sending golden rays throughout the room when they arrived. “Hurry,” Hayden urged, “Get her up on that window seat. We have about five minutes to get a good picture before the sun changes.”

  
Astrid patted the seat encouraging Nova to jump up on it. Nova was eager to obey.

  
“Get her to lie down, and if you can, have her look like she’s sleeping.”

  
“That’s easy,” Astrid laughed. “Nova, sleepy face.”

  
Nova rested her head on her paws and closed her eyes. Hayden fluffed the curtains a little, and rearranged the pillows. He pushed his suitcase out of the way. “Can I use your phone?” he asked, closing the curtains to another window to give the proper shadowing effect.

  
Astrid passed it to him hesitantly. He dropped to one knee, tapping the screen to focus the lens. He took pictures from every angle possible until the sun had moved, and walked back over to Astrid. Nova jumped up off the window seat. Astrid took the phone and skeptically looked through each of the photos. “Wow,” she said finally. “Nova looks amazing in these! They’ll look fantastic on her page!”

  
“Wait,” Hayden said, confused. “Her page?”

  
“Yeah, Nova’s Instagram page. She’s called ‘SuperNova’.”

  
“Your dog has her own Instagram page?”

  
“Yes. I just said that. It’s almost more popular than mine. And I’m 236 followers away from being considered and ‘Instagram star.’”

  
“Wow.”

  
“All my pets have their own social media pages. People love them. Nova is the most popular, then Sir Tarlo. His social name is ‘Sir Tartar-Sauce’.” And Stormfly is ‘Queen_of_ the_Wind’, my blue-and-gold macaw Azula is ‘The_Nutjob’, which everyone loves because she adores nuts and she’s crazy. Then the Zebra’s page is called ‘Stars ’n’ Stripes’, but we call him Geometry.”

  
“What about the Shepherd? Hades, I think?”

  
“Oh.” Astrid’s face fell a little. “He’s not a pet. He’s a body guard. My dad knows that if I ever got abducted, it would be for the ransom money. So he made me learn Karate and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. I have a black belt in both, but he felt like that wasn’t enough. So he got me Hades. He’s a personal protection dog, or in other words, a trained assassin.”

  
“Is that why he wanted to kill me?”

  
“Maybe not kill you, but yeah.”

  
Astrid sat down on Hayden’s bed, opening up her Instagram app. “What should the caption be?” she asked, choosing a picture.

  
“Something about napping?” Hayden offered.

  
“Yeah, like… ‘A note from Nova: How to look amazing and get your beauty sleep. #multitasking #notesfromNova’. I just post this and…voila! Insta-hit!”

  
Someone called them from downstairs, indicating supper was ready. A smile lit up Astrid’s face. “Marinated steak, here I come!” She jumped up off the bed and jogged out of the bed room, Nova following at such a tremendous speed she crashed into the wall.

  
Astrid peaked back into the room. “Tomorrow you have to help me get some good pics of me and my other pets. It’ll be like a photo shoot, except better, ‘cause I get to choose what I look like! My last make-up artist was terrible.”

  
Hayden followed Astrid down the stairs quietly. He wasn’t too fond of being her personal photographer, but it was definitely better than being a quote-finding slave. She didn’t seem to hate him when he did what she wanted, so if he were to help her get her social media ratings up, she might start to like him.


	3. The Perfectionist

Hayden sat in Gail’s office, fidgeting uncomfortably in his chair. Could this possibly get any worse? He wasn’t sure how many more personal questions he could stand to answer. Honestly, how much of the information that he had given her did she really need? What did having any pets have to do with the current matter?

She was probably just trying to get to know him, but Hayden just wanted to get away and hide in the seclusion on his room. He strongly disliked talking to people, especially when he had to talk about himself. Gail didn’t need to know about every hobby, band, sport or color that he liked.

Gail turned about in her swivel chair to get something out of a file cabinet, and Hayden immediately glanced at the clock behind him. _1:15._ No wonder he was so hungry. He could occasionally catch a waft of food, making his stomach growl. He wasn’t fond of living in a strange place surrounded by strange people, but at least the food was good.

Today seemed a little better than yesterday though. He and Astrid had come down for dinner, and he had tripped over his own foot and fell down the last three stairs. Then he had accidentally knocked over his water glass and saturated his steak. Astrid had a fit of laughter both times, and Hayden could only hope that his cheeks were not a red as they felt.

Sir Tarlo had accidentally gotten locked in his room, and in the middle of dessert, he started to yowl. Nova had howled along with him, and to top all of it off, Azula started squawking. Astrid had given him an annoyed look and told a maid to go let the cat out. And he had to be her photographer this afternoon.

“So, Hayden,” Gail went on, “I have been thinking about enrolling you in Astrid’s school. You would be able to finish the semester out. How do you feel about the idea? I can pull you out as soon as you want to.”

Hayden thought seriously. If he went to school, it would be ten times easier to convince Gail that he was fine. He could go home sooner. “That sounds pretty good,” he decided, nodding his head. “I think I’d like that.”

“Great!” Gail said excitedly, “You’ll start on Monday. I’ll make sure you have all the books you need. This is a private school, but there is no dress code, other than it needs to be relatively nice.”

Hayden nodded again, trying to get a good whiff of whatever lunch was. The dinner bell rang, and he let out a small sigh of relief.

Gail stood. “That’s our lunch cue. Shall we?”

Hayden followed her out the door and into the dining room, silently praying that he wouldn’t embarrass himself again. He had checked his room thoroughly for the cat, so at least that couldn’t repeat itself.

He and Gail sat down at the table, Astrid however, was nowhere in sight. Hayden expected Gail to wait for her daughter, but she waved the servers on anyway. They had been eating for several minutes before Astrid came barreling into the dining room, still in her riding breeches and boots. She had huge dirt and grass stains on her knees.

“Good to see you, Astrid,” Gail said flatly. “I wasn’t sure whether you’d be joining us.”

“I fell off,” Astrid gushed. “That’s why I’m late. And you could have waited for me. I mean, I’m only five minutes late.” She glanced at her mother, a slightly disrespectful look passing over her face.  

“Well, I’m glad you’re alright.” Gail nonchalantly told her daughter, reaching for the salt shaker.

Lunch was eaten in silence, and when Astrid had finished, she immediately motioned for Hayden to follow her out of the room. He did so, not wanting to make her mad. She hurried up the stairs and into her room.

“Okay,” she started, a commanding tone in her voice. “Stormfly and I scouted out some cool locations to shoot at. I have a few outfits that I picked out for them.”

She opened up her _giant_ walk in closet and started pulling out a bunch of different clothes.

“So, do I just sit here?” Hayden asked awkwardly.

Astrid poked her head out of the closet. “No, stupid. Make yourself useful. Pack up my extra makeup. It’s in my vanity drawer. But not anything I’ll need for this dress.” She held up a white spring dress for him to see, then ducked back in the closet and shut the door.

Hayden walked nervously into the bathroom. He knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about makeup. What would you use if you were wearing a white dress? He approached the vanity and opened up the top left drawer.

It was _not_ full of makeup supplies. It was other supplies that he would not have cared to see, so he quickly shut the drawer and tried the other one. This time he did find makeup, but he had no idea what not to pack. There were six different kinds of “concealer” and eight variations of every shade of lip stick.

He picked up the little bag in the corner and put one of everything into the bag, hoping that he had done some good.

“Hayden!” Astrid suddenly gasped from behind him. “What are you doing?! I’m going to need that Mascara! That’s the thickening brush!”

“Sorry,” he mumbled passing he the small bottle and bag. “I’m clueless about this sort of thing.”

“Clearly,” she muttered, shooing him off the vanity stool and plopping down in his place. She packed her own bag and skillfully applied her makeup. “Let’s go,” she said finally, waving him out the door.

She led him out to the barn and set her bag and extra outfits down on a chair. “Okay,” she started, grabbing a grooming bin from the tack room. “My first picture is going to be on Stormfly. We’ll just be standing there on this little knoll, and the wind blowing through my hair and her mane, and gazing dramatically into the distance. So, I need you to groom Stormfly, because I don’t want to get this dress dirty. It’s really hard to clean.”

Hayden nodded and took the box from her and entered Stormfly’s stall. The Arabian mare nickered at him and nosed through his hair. He stood still for a minute, allowing the horse to get used to him. She rubbed her forehead against his shoulder affectionately.

“Aw! She likes you!” Astrid exclaimed. “You’re lucky! She only does that to certain people.”

Hayden set the bin down and rubbed his hands across the mare’s neck, letting her know where he was a he moved into her blind spot. He could feel the muscle under her skin. He reached into the tack bin and pulled out a brush, the hard bristles scratching his hand.

“Wrong brush, moron,” Astrid growled, picking at her nail. “Curry comb is first.”

Hayden didn’t reply, but picked up the correct brush. He held it in front of Stormfly’s nose so that she could sniff what he was using. The mare nuzzled it curiously, the drew back and dipped her muzzle into her water bucket for a drink. He curried over her grey and white coat, making sure her loosened every speck of dust. He then reached for the hard brush, the process coming to memory.

Dust rose in wispy spirals from the horse and dissolved into the air. Again, Hayden covered every inch of the mare’s body with his brush before moving onto the soft brush.

“Oh my gosh, Hayden,” Astrid groaned. “What is taking you so long? It’s been twenty minutes and you haven’t even finished her body yet.”

“You want her to look good, don’t you?” Hayden replied softly, gently sweeping the dirt of the horse’s face.

“Yeah, but there is such a thing as ‘photo touch-up.’”

“When you use a photo touch up, the quality of the photograph is lessened. People can tell when you took your time to edit. But if everything has not been edited, the picture will seem absolutely perfect. It looks real.” Hayden ran a hand down the mare’s leg, squeezing the tendon to ask her to lift her hoof.

Astrid sighed and pulled out her phone to check her social media rivals. “You’re such a perfectionist. No one is going see the bottoms of her hooves.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that. You’re just wasting my time by standing here grooming my horse like you’re in the military or something. Just hurry up, would you?”

Hayden didn’t even seem to notice how bossy she was being, and that drove Astrid crazy. This guy was annoying. He just totally blew her off. He was now applying a shiner to Stormfly’s hooves.

Hayden _finally_ finished and led the horse out of her stall, following Astrid up to the north pasture. She climbed up on her horse and found her perfect knoll, halting Stormfly at the top.

“Wait there,” Hayden instructed. “I need to find the right lighting.”

“The wind is blowing. If we don’t take it now, we’ll miss our chance.” Astrid glared at him as he adjusted his angle for the sixth time.

“Lighting is one of the most important aspects of a photograph-”

“Whatever,” Astrid snapped, very annoyed. “I’ll just slap a few filters on it.”

“That isn’t as- wait! Hold still!” Hayden dropped to one knee, angling the camera and focusing the lens. “I think I found it.”

He sat there for a moment, doing nothing but fiddling with the phone.

“Will you just snap a picture?!” Astrid hissed, trying to keep her face in the “dramatic” pose she wanted.

“I can’t get the right angle. I have a few trashy ones-”

“It can’t possibly be that difficult!”

“Well, you have to account for the-”

“What?! The lighting?!” Astrid shouted, making Stormfly prance in place. “I don’t care about the lighting! I have an app that can fix that! Just take the picture!” Stormfly picked her head up nervously and stamped her hoof on the ground.

“I can’t now. Your angle is all messed up.” Hayden tried to explain, but Astrid had no intention of listening to a word he said.

“I don’t care about the angle either! Just snap a picture, you over-analyzing imbecile! I don’t have all day to stand here and wait for you to calculate when the sun and wind will be just perfect! It’s so simple, any idiot can press the button, and yet you can’t do it!”

Stormfly’s ears were pinned to the back of her head, and she swished her tail anxiously. Hayden noticed how afraid Stormfly appeared, but Astrid didn’t give it a second thought. He swallowed the lump of hurt in his throat and spoke up. “Astrid, Stormfly looks really nervous-”

“Shut up! I do not need you to tell me how my horse looks!”

“Yeah but-”

“I said ‘SHUT UP!’” At Astrid’s sudden outburst, Stormfly reared up on her hind legs sending Astrid backwards with a scream. She hit the ground with a thud, but the sound could not be heard over the thundering hoof beats that pounded back to the barn.

“Are you okay?” Hayden gasped, running over to her.

Wheezing, Astrid glared at him.” I- I’m FINE.” The second word came out in a heave. She snatched her phone from him and pushed herself off the ground. Her legs were far shakier that she had expected them to be, but at least they held her up. She started back to the barn, as wobbly as a newborn foal.

“Do you want some help?” Hayden called after her. He sounded sincere, but Astrid was too embarrassed and angry to care.

“No!” she shouted. “You want to know what I want? I want you to leave! Go back to wherever it is that you come from and let me have a normal life! I’m so tired of my mother’s ‘clients!’ I want you to leave and never come back!” She turned furiously and stormed away, limping as her hip was stabbed with pain every time she took a step.

She finally made it to the barn, and was pleased to find that Stormfly had just wandered to her stall. She slid the door closed so quickly that it slammed shut, making the horse jump again.

She grouched up to the house and into her room plopping down on the bed. She was still shaking slightly from her fall, and she curled up on her light blue canopy bed with her favorite blanket. Nova eventually jumped up beside her.

Astrid’s phone buzzed; a reminder to post something. She picked up her phone from her night stand and unlocked it, finding the camera still open. She was about to exit the screen, but a small image in the bottom right corner caught her eye. She tapped her thumb on it and the image opened, revealing the picture of her a Stormfly.

Her eyes grew wide. The picture was amazing. Was this one of Hayden’s “trashy” photos? Her horse’s coat was shimmering in the late afternoon light, and the breeze was tossing around her hair and Stormfly’s mane and tail. The grass looked like it had been imported from Ireland; it was so green.

The blue sky in the background illuminated the picture, making it look almost filtered. The amazing thing was, though, it was not filtered at all. It was a completely natural picture. Maybe Hayden’s light theory was right.

Astrid posted the picture and set her phone aside, suddenly feeling guilty for being so rude to him. Maybe being a perfectionist wasn’t so horrible after all.


	4. The Incident

Astrid and Hayden sat in the back of a sleek black Mercedes, zipping along the highway to Astrid’s school. Astrid was Snap-chatting with her young cousin, giggling every few seconds over how _adorable_ six year-old Abby was.

“This picture is so CUTE!” she would squeal. “Abby’s sending me pictures of her baby rabbit!”

Hayden honestly didn’t care about how cute Abby’s baby rabbit was, but he didn’t say so. He was too busy doodling on the front of his composition notebook with a Sharpie. He was drawing a Blue Jay, and he desperately needed a thinner tipped marker. The lines in the wings were far too thick.

The car sped over a pothole, and Hayden’s marker slid over the cardboard cover. He groaned, as his Blue Jay was completely ruined. Astrid didn’t even notice him, and giggled again at her cousin’s misspelled words.

The car slowed, and Hayden glanced up out the window. He watched as they pulled up outside the school, realizing that this school was a fancy one. The large silver letters above the door read: “Miller-Hofferson High School.” He quickly pieced together that Astrid’s family had played an important role in funding the school, only giving Astrid all the more reason to be cocky.

The car pulled to a stop and Astrid confidently stepped out of the vehicle. She was immediately greeted by six or seven other teens. Hayden waited until the group had gone inside before he left the car, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and trudging inside.

No one ever bothered even glance at him, which certainly didn’t bother him at all. He sat quietly through his classes, thankful that he wasn’t called on by any teachers.  

While he and Astrid waited for their ride home at the end of the day, she chatted with her friends. Hayden sat off to the side, doodling in his notebook.

The rest of the week was exactly the same, and even the weekend proved to be eventless. Monday and Tuesday passed just the same, and finally Wednesday rolled around. It was the last day before fall break started, and everyone was ready for the week off.

Wednesday afternoon, Hayden sat on the bleachers drawing a landscape in his notebook. He overlooked the football field, and had a perfect view of the football and cheerleading practices. He sighed, as this was one of the last places he’d like to be. His class was out for one hour due to the practices, and since he wasn’t on the football team, he had nothing to do.

He most certainly did not mind that he wasn’t a part of the team, though. He’d be murdered before he even set foot on the field by those players. The quarterback was by far the most intimidating player. First off, he was huge in terms of buffness. Several times he had disrespected the coach, mistreated the other players, and on one occasion, bloodied someone’s nose.

Astrid had only identified him as “Big Sam,” and indicated there was some rivalry between the two.

Astrid was the captain of the cheerleading team. She and her teammates were cart wheeling across the field, back flipping and tumbling in the way of the players, since the football coach had disappeared for a few minutes. She finally called the others together to practice their cheers, some of which were quite impressive.

She was standing on the shoulders of two other girls when Big Sam started to yell at them, demanding that they “keep their girly racket down.”

“Our ‘girly racket’ is what keeps people interested in your stupid little game,” Astrid replied smartly, twirling her high ponytail.

“They come to see us play, me specifically,” Sam bragged. “And we can’t focus with all that noise. So keep it down!”

“How much focus can it possibly take to run around with a ball?” Astrid shot back smoothly. “I guess a lot for you brainless bozos.”

“I’m gonna pound your pretty little bow into the dirt!” Big Sam yelled, his face red and his fists balled up.

Astrid giggled lightheartedly, shifting casually on the shoulders of the other girls. “Calm down, Snotface. You’re ugly when you’re mad.” She smiled as Sam started her direction. “Well, uglier.”

Big Sam charged at the three, knocking into the two girls at the base, and causing Astrid to fall, landing sprawled on the ground. Sam’s fists went flying toward her. She deftly kicked him between the legs, but cried out in pain as she did so.

Sam tumbled down on top of her, his helmet slamming into the side of her forehead. The twenty girls in the background started screaming as Sam repeatedly tried to hit Astrid, his fist pounding the ground as she did her best to dodge him.

She pushed her fingers through the metal cage around his face, clawing at his eyes with her long, painted nails. He drew back, hollering in pain, but was drowned out by an earsplitting whistle.

The football coach came running onto the scene, grabbed Sam and threw him down on the ground beside Astrid.

“What are you doing?!” he shouted at Sam. “You should know better than to pick fights with girls!”

“I didn’t pick the fight! She did!”

“Just shut up, Sam! I’ll deal with you later!” He turned to Astrid, who was still lying flat on her back. “You alright, Astrid?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered, obviously fighting back tears. “I fell.”

“Does your neck hurt?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, Astrid, don’t move. If you did injure your neck, we can’t-”

“She’s just being a drama queen,” Sam jumped in, removing his helmet and rubbing his eyes.

“I said ‘shut up, Sam!’” the coach reminded angrily. “Who was Astrid’s base?”

 “Tayley and I were,” Madeline answered, stepping forward.

“What happened? Why did she fall?”

“Sam ran into us,” Tayley spoke up. “I think I twisted my ankle when I slipped.” She gingerly tried to bear weight on her foot.

“I didn’t run into them!” Sam retorted. “Astrid fell, I came over to see if she was okay, and she kicked me for no reason!”

Both sides in the argument started shouting at each other, and again, the coach silenced them with a whistle. He suddenly noticed Hayden sitting on the bleachers, watching the whole ordeal. 

“Hey, you!” the coach yelled up to him. “Did you see what happened?”

Hayden nodded without thinking, then mentally kicked himself.

“Get down here!”

Hayden slowly climbed down the seats, shutting his pencil in his notebook as he walked over to the group. He passed Big Sam, suddenly realizing why they called him “big.”

“So,” the coach demanded, “What happened?”

What should he say? He could either tell the truth and get pummeled to death by Sam, or lie and…who knew what Astrid would do to him. He decided the unknown was better than the known, and besides, truth was truth.

“Sam and Astrid were just exchanging insults to begin with, and he ran into Tayley and Madeline. By the time Astrid was on the ground, it looked like she was only fighting back in self defense.” Hayden stopped himself before he has the chance to say too much. Sam was already glaring at him.

“Sam, get off this field and go straight to the principal’s office! I don’t want to see you anywhere but there, and if I do, you will be taken off this team! Understood?” the coach barked out, gaining a mumbled response from Sam. The coach continued, “Madeline and Tayley, go to the nurse’s just to make sure you’re okay. The rest of you hit the lockers and get back to class.”

Hayden was about to leave, but was stopped.

“What’s your name, son?” the coach asked him, slowly leading him away from Astrid, still on her back. “Just stay there, Astrid,” he called over his shoulder.

“Hayden,” he replied, confused as to what was happening.

“Did you see how she hit the ground?”

“Sort of.”

“I think she may have badly injured her neck. You got a phone on you? I left mine in my office.”

“Yeah,” Hayden said softly, pulling it out and passing it to the coach.

“I need to call 911 due to protocol. Could you direct whoever shows up in here when they arrive?”

Hayden nodded and wordlessly walked out to the road and waited for the ambulance. It didn’t take more than fifteen minutes, and field was soon dotted with EMTs. He hadn’t actually been worried before, but when they strapped Astrid to a backboard and carried her to the vehicle, he wondered how serious it was.

“Let’s go,” the coach instructed, coming up behind him.

“Where?” Hayden asked, even more confused.

“With them. They need to know what you saw.” He handed Hayden his phone back, and they climbed up into the ambulance.

It wasn’t thirty minutes later that Hayden sat in a hospital room, attempting to tune out Astrid’s continual complaining. He hated hospitals. Despised them. They smelled like Ammonia and puke, and with the amount of disease he’d already come in contact with he might as well have been thrown into a Petri dish with the Ebola virus.

They had immediately taken Astrid in for x-rays, and her mother had been notified and was on her way. But Hayden was stuck. He wasn’t allowed to go back to school, since three doctors had already had him repeat what he had seen and it was likely he would be needed again.

It wasn’t that he wanted to go back to school, no, he just wanted to get out of the hospital. If he went back to school, Sam would probably strangle him. At least the bully had a full week to calm down before Hayden would see him again. It also meant he had a full week to plan the worst revenge ever. At least Astrid wasn’t mad at him, but that wasn’t anything that would last.

“Astrid! What happened? Are you alright?” Gail came rushing into the room, her hair out of place and shoving her keys into her large purse.

“Yeah,” Astrid mumbled, “but I’d be a lot better if they would take this stupid neck brace off.” She gestured to the contraption around her throat, making it impossible for her head to move.

“Oh, honey, I’m so glad your okay,” Gail bent down and placed a gentle kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “I phoned your father. He said he would fly back as soon as he could.”

“Doesn’t he have that big contract to sign?”

“Yes, but he’s trying to push it back until next week. His secretary has been busy all day rearranging his schedule.” Gail finally turned and saw Hayden, slumped glumly in a corner chair. “Hayden,” she smiled, standing. “I’m so sorry you got dragged into this. I can have someone take you home, if you’d like. Thank you so very much for your help.”

Hayden nodded and opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the entering Doctor.

“Good news and bad news, Astrid,” he announced, scanning over the clipboard notes in his hand. “Your neck appears to be just fine, but I can’t say the same for your right femur, which is broken about halfway down. It is a non-displaced fracture, so luckily it will not require surgery to fix. We don’t even need to put a cast on it, since it is such a difficult place to splint. It will heal on its own.”

“Great,” Astrid replied flatly, “so when can I ride again?”

The doctor appeared to be fighting back a laugh. “Unfortunately you won’t be able to ride, or anything active, for six weeks—maybe more depending on how the bone heals.”

Astrid stared at him, her mouth gaping open. “No riding for a month and a half?”

“I’m afraid that’s about the size of it.”

“What about cheerleading? I’m the team captain. I have to be at the practices.”

“Well, Astrid, as soon as you are discharged there is nothing keeping you from attending the practices. But to observe only.”

Astrid groaned, pushing her bangs back. “What am I supposed to do for that long?”

“Well, you can still enjoy non active things, and you will gradually gain mobility back.” The doctor smiled sympathetically. “But for now, let me take of that brace. You do have a minor neck sprain, but a hot or cold pack will easily cure any soreness.”

He walked over and unsnapped the brace, gently pulling it away from her. “There is a Physical Therapist coming in to do an assessment. More than likely be going home today, once we fit you with some crutches.”

Astrid rolled her eyes, but was relieved to have the clunky, ridiculous brace off. The PT came and went, briefly giving some instruction on how to use her crutches. Astrid straight up refused to sit in the wheelchair while she was brought out of the hospital, Hayden lagging slightly behind as she hobbled out on crutches.

He was ready to leave the hospital germ-factory, but he was _not_ ready to hear Astrid complain for the rest of the evening. Well, it could be worse, and he knew from experience how much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! 400 views already! Thanks guys! Now, if you would be so kind as to leave kudos and a comment you will make my day! I adore, ADORE, feedback. Thanks for reading! I promise I'll update soon!


	5. Plain Cheese Pizza

Hayden propped his head up on the backseat window of Gail’s small, navy blue Jaguar, watching quietly as the wooded hills sped by. This part of Tennessee was beautiful, unlike the busy city that his father spent his days in. Even though the Haddock’s lived in the suburbs, next to a large wooded park, it still didn’t seem even half as beautiful as this.

He liked it here. Well, he liked it better than where he normally was, but almost anything was an improvement compared to that.  Even if “anything” was sitting and listening to Astrid complain for 45 minutes in the car.

“And now I have to sit in a chair or a bed like a useless lump and be waited on for two months!” Astrid was saying, probably for the fifth or sixth time. “How is this fair to me? Why should Snotface get to move on like nothing happened and I can’t do anything! It’s not fair!”

 _Life isn’t fair,_ Hayden fought the urge to say. _Not that you know anything about real life. You’re just a spoiled little rich girl used to getting her way. You’ll probably never know the meaning of unfairness._

“Astrid, sweetheart,” Gail soothed. “I will contact Sam’s parents. Just relax. Now, you might remember that I have a conference meeting tonight. I tried to postpone, but unfortunately I cannot. I will have to leave you by yourself tonight.”

“I don’t care,” Astrid shrugged. “I have toothpick back there to help me.”

Hayden cringed.

“Astrid! Apologize to Hayden!”

“Sorry,” she grumbled, flipping down the visor to inspect her mascara in the mirror.

“I expect it to be a sincere apology, young lady. Now turn around and try again.”

Astrid huffed and turned around to face him, scowling. “I’m sorry,” she said again, in fake remorse. She did sound sincere, but her expression said otherwise.

Hayden knew better than to bring it to Gail’s attention, though. “That’s okay,” he mumbled, refusing to make eye contact with her. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been called a “toothpick;” he certainly wasn’t the meatiest boy his age.

They finally pulled into the long, gravel driveway and stopped in front of the door. Before anyone had the chance to help her, Astrid opened her door and crutched up the steps to the house. Hayden followed slowly, but was stopped.

“Hayden,” Gail called after him. “If I don’t leave now I’ll be late for my meeting. Just tell Astrid I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it’s a two and a half hour drive both ways. The maids can help her with anything she needs.”

“I’ll tell her,” Hayden nodded, turning around and walking through the door. He was surprised to find Astrid standing in the entryway, leaning on her crutches with an annoyed expression.

“What took you so long?” She demanded.

“Your mom asked me to-”

“You know what, I don’t really care. Just come on.” She haltingly led him through the living room and away from the stair that lead to her bedroom.

“But…your bedroom is that way,” Hayden stuttered, confused.

“I know, stupid. I’m not going to my bedroom.” She rounded the corner and pointed to a narrow door. “Open that.”

Hayden obeyed, wondering where it led. A staircase, going down, appeared. It was hard to tell what was at the bottom, since the room was completely dark. Astrid flicked a light switch up, illuminating the room at the base, she started down slowly. He followed, unsure of what else he should do.

Astrid managed to navigate the stairs reasonably well. She kept her balance and crutched down them, and was nearly at the bottom now.

The left crutch suddenly slid out from underneath her, and with a scream she tumbled down the last few steps and landed on the floor.

“Astrid!” Hayden ran down to her, squatting next to her and helping her to roll over. “Are you okay?” he asked, trying to sit her up. He knew she would likely just yell at him for so much as _touching_ her but she seemed so stunned that she didn’t respond.

“Are you hurt?” he pressed, worried she might have broken something else.

“I don’t think so,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “I can’t stop falling, apparently.” she offered him a week smile, and struggled to get to her feet. Hayden offered her a hand, shocked that she took it.

He passed her the crutches, and she hobbled over to a brown couch and eased herself down on it.

Hayden glanced around the finished basement. There were no windows, and the room was equipped with a large stereo system and flat screen TV. There were a few pictures on the wall, but except for the couch and a coffee table, the room was otherwise empty.

“What should we have for dinner?” Astrid asked him nonchalantly, situating herself on the couch.

Hayden was astonished. She wanted his input? That pain medicine she’d been given at the hospital must’ve gotten to her head. Astrid _never_ wanted his inputs.

“I don’t know,” he muttered, standing awkwardly at the bottom of the steps.

“Well, think. I’m hungry, you _should_ be hungry because we haven’t eaten since 11:30, so what do you want?” She rotated around to look at him.

“Uh, I’m not really hungry for anything specific. What do you want?”

Astrid groaned. “I asked you. So pick something.” Her eyes narrowed as she grew slightly irritated.

“Pizza?” It was the first food that popped into his head, though he really didn’t even want it.

Astrid scrunched up her face. “Ew. Pizza is so gross.”

“What?” Surprised, Hayden couldn’t help but respond.

“Pizza. It’s disgusting. Don’t tell me you actually like vegetables and blue cheese and tomato sauce and gluten free bread all mixed together in a pile.”

“What you just described does not sound anything like pizza.”

“Our chef made it. He specifically called it ‘pizza.’ He took this gluten free flatbread and covered it in tomato sauce and shredded blue cheese, and put a bunch of vegetables on it. It was the nastiest thing I have ever eaten.”

Hayden stared at her. “Have you never eaten regular takeout pizza?”

 “I’ve never eaten ‘takeout’ anything. We never eat at fast food restaurants.”

“So you’ve never had regular, plain mozzarella cheese pizza before?”

Astrid rolled her eyes. “I just said no, and I don’t want pizza for dinner.”

Hayden couldn’t believe that Astrid had never eaten regular pizza before. What was life without pizza? He couldn’t let her miss out on that joy for the rest of her life. “What if I went and got a plain cheese pizza for you to try?”

Now it was Astrid’s turn to be surprised. “They make plain cheese pizza?”

“Yeah. Just cheese. Sometimes even without sauce.”

“Like…nothing but cheese on the bread?” She appeared to think he was kidding.

“Yeah, I eat it all the time.”

“And you can go get it someplace else?”

“Of course. There’s a great pizza place in town.”

Astrid seemed to be considering it. “Okay,” she said finally. “Take my car—the keys are underneath the seat—go get this pizza, and bring back some Root Beer and a movie.”

Hayden nodded. “What kind of movie?”

“I don’t know. Just no superheroes. I’m so sick of superhero movies.”

“Got it. No superheroes.” He hurried back up the steps and into the garage, finding Astrid’s car to be one of the sweetest sports cars he had ever laid eyes on. And he got to _drive_ it. Not just ride in it. _Drive_ it. He couldn’t believe his luck.

The pizza place was packed, he had to go to three different stores to find one where the Root Beer was in stock, and then the line at the Redbox was unbelievably long. But he finally made it back to the Hofferson’s, and brought everything down to the basement where Astrid was impatiently waiting for him.

“What in the world took you so long?” she demanded, muting whatever was playing on the TV. Nova jumped up from her place on the couch beside Astrid and ran to Hayden, trying to get a whiff of the pizza.

“I guess everyone within a fifty mile radius wanted pizza, Root Beer, and a movie tonight,” he shrugged. “It was so busy everywhere I went. By the way, I think your car tires are a little low.”

“Oh, I’m sure they are,” Astrid muttered, opening up a soda. “I’ve never even driven that car.”

“Why?” Hayden asked, opening the pizza box. Half the pizza was plain cheese, while the other half had beef and pineapple. He _loved_ pineapple pizza.

“Blame the DMV,” Astrid muttered, leaning back on the couch. “I went to take my license test, and I passed, but they lost the paperwork. So now I have to wait another six months before I can drive.” She took the plate of pizza from him, smelling it skeptically. “What movie did you get?”

“It’s called ‘Code Dragon.’  It’s some sort of spy movie, but it’s got Eret Skarrarison in it, so it has to be good.”

“Sounds good enough. That guy is such a good actor. He’s pretty hot, too.”

“I’ve heard he’s actually a jerk when you meet him.”

“He’s too cute to be a jerk,” Astrid grinned. “Just put the movie in.”

Hiccup opened the case and inserted it into the DVD player. The machine processed for a moment, and finally started to play. The skipped through all the movie advertisements at the beginning, and finally came to the main menu. Astrid hit play immediately, and Hayden, having no place else to sit, ended up beside her. She didn’t seem to mind.

She took a whiff of the pizza, and cautiously nibbled at the end. She took a bite, chewing it slowly. “This is actually not terrible,” she announced, taking another bite. “Maybe I do like pizza.” She quieted as the opening credits passed and the scene opened up to a large building. “Is this movie in black and white?” she asked, suddenly noticing the grey scale videography.

“I don’t think so. Maybe the beginning is some kind of flashback.”

The scene zoomed through the streets of a large city, obviously old footage. The soundtrack didn’t sound very modern either. They watched curiously as the camera panned up the side of a house and in through a window, revealing a couple, kissing rather passionately, in that old-fashioned, spit-swapping Disney way.

The man pulled back suddenly, showing off a small mustache on his upper lip. “ _Fürchte dich nicht, mein Schatz. Ich werde für Sie zurück.“_

“Is that _Hitler_? ” Hayden asked, staring at the mustache.

“Is this movie in _German_?” Astrid more or less demanded, reaching for another slice of pizza.

“ _Aber was, wenn Sie nie wieder kommen? Was werde ich ohne dich tun?_ ” the blonde woman whimpered, dramatically throwing herself at him and laying her head on his chest.

Astrid turned and glared at Hayden, almost horrified by what she was watching. “What _is_ this?” She spat, glancing from him to the TV. “I thought you said this was a spy movie!”

“That’s what the cover said it was,” Hayden offered weakly. “Maybe they put the wrong movie in the case.”

“Great,” Astrid groaned, leaning back with her arms folded. “Now I have to sit through a soap opera about the love life of Adolf Hitler. I think I rather listen to a Justin Bieber song on replay.”

“I take it you really don’t like Justin Bieber?”

“Can’t stand him, but that’s not the point.” She sat up, pointing an accusing finger at him. “The point is that you couldn’t bring back a half decent movie, and not only is the plot terrible, but we can’t understand a word they’re saying!”

“Who says I can’t understand them?” Hayden argued back, suddenly realizing the stupidity of what he’d said. He didn’t speak _any_ German.

“Oh, really?” Astrid answered smoothly. “Well then, Mr. Smarty-pants, what are they saying?”

“I didn’t say-”

“Oh, yes you did! Come on, genius, translate.” Astrid continued glaring at him, daring him to refuse her.

Hayden swallowed and glanced at the screen. There was a company of soldiers visible now, and appeared to be performing some kind of drill. One man was painfully out of step. The man with the mustache, presumably Hitler, stormed over and yanked the soldier out of line.

“ _Du dummer Mann!“_ he shouted, shaking the infantryman.

Astrid paused the movie, looking at Hayden expectantly. she was obviously enjoying making a fool out of him.

“He s-said... ‘You dumb man?’” Hayden guessed, rubbing his sweaty palms on his blue jeans.

Astrid seemed to accept his “translation,” and hit play.

“ _Der Feind wird Sie zerquetschen, bevor Sie auch nur einen Fuß in ihr Land treten!_ ” Hitler continued, pushing him away. “ _Mach es nochmal!_ ”

She paused it again, waiting for him to tell her what he had said.

“Her fiend... will zestfully quench you before... Einstien... flubs the land of treaties. That is normal!” He half expected her to scoff and order him out of the room for the terrible interpretation, but she appeared to be amused by it and once again played the movie.

“ _Entschuldigen Sie mein Herr. Es wird nicht wieder vorkommen._ ”  The young soldier turned and walked back to the company of trainees, still frightened.

Astrid paused the movie, encouraging him to translate.

“I'm endulging in Lo Mein... and the wierd night warrior vomited.“ His translation was one of the strangest things he’d ever said.

Astrid looked at him for a moment, a smile slowly creeping across her face. She finally burst out laughing.“Lo Mein?! Einstien?! Where do you come up with this stuff?!”

She thought it was funny? “I was just going by what the German words sound like.” He shyly told her, quite shocked that she hadn’t ridiculed him for saying something stupid.

“Well, keep going,” Astrid gasped, staring the movie again. “I haven’t laughed this hard watching a movie in forever!”

“ _Sie_ _werden_ _, wenn es funktioniert_.”

“When is the warrior funtional again?” Hayden said for Hitler, realizing what a strange conversation he was creating.

Another man ran onto the scene, shouting,“ _Allgemein Hitler! Wir haben gerade nes von vorne empfangen! Es ist dringend!_ _”_            

“It's all mine, Hitler! We're having fun with the grenade we emptied! It is deranged!” Astrid was now laughing so hard that Hayden started to wonder if she could breathe properly. At least she seemed to be enjoying herself.

“ _Ich komme!_ ” Hitler called to the newcomer, staring in his direction. “ _Sie nicht antworten, bis ich das Wort geben!_ ”

“I'm coming to see the night ant workers! It is worth the gerbils!” Gerbils? How did he find gerbils funny? And more importantly, how did _Astrid_ find gerbils funny?

But it didn’t really matter, and as long as he kept her laughing, she couldn’t complain. She had such a sweet, melodic laugh—when it wasn’t directed at someone. He didn’t mind listening to it, and found it to be rather contagious. He realized about halfway through the movie, that for the first time in…years…he was laughing. It felt good.

By the time the movie ended and the pizza was eaten Astrid had drifted off to sleep. It must have been entirely by chance that she had leaned down to rest her head on his shoulder, out cold.

It had startled Hayden a little at first, since he was still translating the end credits and attempting to pronounce the names. He quickly quieted, realizing she had dosed off. He wasn’t sure if he should wake her up. She might be embarrassed that she fell asleep on him, and embarrassed Astrid meant angry Astrid.

Hayden sat there for a minute, debating his options. Finally, he eased himself out from under her, and leaned her down on the couch. She shifted a little, emitting a quiet clicking noise from her closed mouth, almost like a baby suckling. He smiled at it and gently covered her with a blanket. Switching the TV off, he tip-toed up the stair case with the empty pizza box.


	6. Occasionally

Astrid woke slowly, her hair in her mouth and her leg throbbing painfully. She groggily sat up, brushing her hair back and glancing around. Why was she in the basement? Why was she sleeping on the couch? And why the _heck_ did her leg hurt so badly?

She suddenly caught sight of the crutches leaned up against the end of the couch, and the previous events came rushing back to her. Groaning, she reached for them, and stood up on one leg, adjusting them under her arms.

She hobbled up the stairs, thankful that she could simply push the door open. He mother was sitting in the living room, reading the paper and sipping her coffee.

“Astrid!” the woman shouted as she noticed the girl in the doorway. “What were you doing down there?”

“I went down last night and fell asleep on the couch, she mumbled, still trying to remember everything. “My leg hurts so bad.”

Gail stood quickly and helped her daughter into the living room, seating her on the couch. “I picked up your pain medicine on my way home last night. I’ll get it for you.”

Astrid nodded and grimaced as she tried to find a less painful position. She realized she was still wearing her cheer skirt and a hoodie. The skirt was short enough for her to see a giant purple and blue bruise formed on her thigh. It looked gross.

“How’s your leg?”

Astrid glanced up finding Hayden in front of her. He was dressed for the day, but his hair was a mess, as usual.

“It hurts,” she said quietly. “And looks nasty.” She gestured to the contusion on her thigh.

Hayden made a face as he leaned forward to look. “At least you don’t have to wear a cast. They itch really bad.”

“And how would you know?” She raised an eye brow and all but glared at him. She was not in the mood to have him play the glad game and try and brighten her situation.

He glanced away. “I broke my ankle a few years ago.”

“Oh,” Astrid almost felt bad. He actually did know what he was talking about. “Hey, thanks for the pizza last night,” she blurted out suddenly. “It was pretty good.”

He smiled...maybe. “I’m just glad you don’t hate pizza anymore.”

Gail walked back into the room, carrying an orange prescription bottle and a glass of water. “Here you are, sweetheart,” she said, passing the items to Astrid. “You need to take two. Good morning, Hayden.” She smiled over at the young man. “Breakfast will be in just a few minutes.”

He nodded and eased himself down in a big arm chair, and picking at his thumb.

“So how did the two of you spend your evening?” Gail asked taking the water from Astrid and helping her arrange an ice back on her thigh.

“We watched this German movie,” Astrid replied. “Hayden translated.”

“I didn’t know you spoke German, Hayden,” Gail turned around, looking at him.

“I don’t,” Hayden admitted, perking up considerably. “I just made it up as I went along.”

“And that’s what made it so funny,” Astrid put in, smiling. “Especially that one part about the polar bears!”

“My, that sounds interesting!” Gail chuckled, inwardly rejoicing that the two of them had gotten along. Perhaps she shouldn’t intervene anymore. They seemed to deal with each other much better when she wasn’t around.

They were finally called to breakfast, but all three decided to eat in the living room so that Astrid didn’t have to move. When they finished, Astrid decided to take a bath, and Hayden and Gail left to talk in her office. She immediately noticed how quickly Hayden’s demeanor changed.

He sat in a chair, nervously wringing his hands and glancing around fearfully. What was it that made him so afraid? Could it be that he simply didn’t want to talk to her? That he was intimated by a one on one conversation? Was there something more that she was missing?

“So, tell me Hayden. How was school this week?” It seemed best to talk about a less personal topic first.

“It was good.”

“I remember you mentioned there was a special art project going on. Did you enjoy it?”

He nodded.

“And did your math test go well?”

He nodded again.

Gail pursed her lips. This was so strange. Hayden was shy, and she knew he was, but why was he more open when other people were around? When he had first come, she had monitored him closely due to the fact that he was suicidal, but she hadn’t seen any signs of it. She had never had a teen patient interested in going to school.

Things weren’t adding up. In most cases, patients who were suicidal and/or self harming would do everything to stay secluded in their rooms, but Hayden didn’t seem to mind being with everyone else. In most cases, patients would be more talkative with her and not the other members of the household, but Hayden was just the opposite.

Other than being shy, sensitive, and hurting from the pain his family had experienced, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with this boy. It was just so confusing. Hayden’s father had expressed worry in the fact that there was something seriously wrong with his son’s mental state, and had tried all kinds of therapy before her help. He had been described as “depressed” but hadn’t uttered a negative word in the entire time he’d been with them.

“Hayden, why do you think you are here?” She asked suddenly, almost more for the purpose of satisfying her own curiosity.

He shrugged. “Cause there’s something wrong with me, I guess.”

“What do you think that something is?”

“I tried to kill myself.”

Gail hesitated. He’d said it so bluntly it took her by surprise. “Why?”

“It…seemed better than…than everything else going on in my life.”

“And at the time, what was the ‘everything else?’”

“Well, there was my mom…and after her they took Cabella, and I was in a lot of physical pain, so it seemed like the better option.”

“Was it?”

He shook his head, staring at the floor.

Gail smiled gently. “I can promise you one thing, Hayden. Suicide is never the better option. You don’t deserve it. Ever.”

He nodded solemnly, still staring at his feet. Everyone told him that, but he still didn’t believe it. The world would likely be better off without him. What was the point to staying anyway? He knew suicide was no escape, but the idea was still somehow inviting. But for now, at least while he was here, things seemed to be better.

 Gail knew it was time to change the subject. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to probe deeper into the topic of self harm just yet. Hayden obviously regretted it. “I take it you and Astrid got along last night?”

“Yeah.”

At least she’d gotten a verbal response. Not quite what she was looking for, but it was better than nothing. “I hope she’s treating you nicely. Please tell me if she’s not.”

“She’s nice to me. Bossy, but nice.” _Occasionally._ Astrid wasn’t always nice to him, but it was guaranteed to get worse if he told Gail about it.

“Oh, that’s good to hear. She still has no right to be bossy, however. I’ll speak to her about it.”

“You don’t need to,” Hayden put in quickly. “It was only last night; probably because her leg was bothering her.” _Please, please, please, don’t bring it up to her! She was just starting to not hate me!_

“Well, I’m glad that’s the case. Just let me know if she does anything else. I’ve been trying to rid her of her bossiness for years.” She paused, noticing how fidgety he was. Something was bothering him, but she had quickly learned that Hayden wouldn’t talk to her about it until after the fact. “But speaking of Astrid, I need to check on her. We’ll finish up this afternoon, alright?”

Hayden nodded and stood, eager to get away. He particularly disliked these sessions with Gail. The two left Gail’s office, the woman to go find her daughter, and Hayden to finish his sketch of the zebra, Geometry.

Gail walked up the stairs to Astrid bedroom, and entered through the open door. Her daughter had used the elevator to access her room, since it would be difficult to get up so many steps.

The elevator was built into the house for Dustin’s parents, neither who could actually use stairs. For once, it had come in handy. Well, it had been useful when they were moving furniture upstairs, but that was all.

The door to Astrid’s bathroom was still shut, and Gail knocked to make her presence known. “Astrid, honey, it’s just me. May I come in?”

“Me who?” Came the snappy response.

“Your mother,” Gail replied, sticking her head in the bathroom. “The only other person in this house who would call you ‘honey.’”

“Oh, yeah, you can come in.” Astrid shifted in the huge bathtub to face her mother, switching off the jets so she could hear better. “What do you want?” she asked, sinking down further into the white bubbles.

“I came to check on you. I didn’t want you to drown or something.”

Astrid snorted—a rather unladylike sound. “Drown? In a bathtub?”

“It’s happened before,” Gail told her daughter, seating herself on the vanity stool. “But changing the subject, how are you and Hayden getting along?”

“Okay,” she said, combing her fingers through her wet hair. “He’s not as annoying as I thought he’d be. I’m not saying he’s not annoying, he’s just less annoying than I expected.”

“Astrid, please, he’s very nice and hasn’t done a thing to disturb you since he’s been here. And I don’t ever want to hear you call him a ‘toothpick’, or anything else, again. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she grumbled.

“Thank you. Now, I need you to answer me honestly. Does he act comfortable around you? Was he shy and reserved last night?”

Astrid shrugged. “No. He was laughing and enjoying himself. Why?”

“His father said he was incredibly shy, and he can be, but he seems to be far more shy in my office than anywhere else.” Gail sighed heavily.

“Maybe he just doesn’t like being interviewed about weird and personal topics, like everyone else on the planet.”

Gail gave her daughter a silencing look. But perhaps Astrid was onto something. Perhaps he simply wasn’t comfortable with the setting. Maybe she would hold their afternoon session on the back porch, or another less threatening location.

“Call me if you need me,” she told her daughter, standing and exiting the bathroom. She smiled over her shoulder and shut the door behind her, glancing out the window. She spotted Hayden sitting under a tree, drawing. He seemed to be sketching Geometry, who was prancing around his pen.

The boy was heavily focused on his work, skillfully shading the zebra’s muscle tone for the perfect shape. He was very proud of the picture so far. Geometry was depicted with his head mid-toss and trotting across the page. His hind quarters seemed to be exploding with tense energy—as if the drawing was almost ready to move.

He loved to draw. Art was something, one small thing, that he could control. Life…he had no say in life, but art was another matter entirely. If he wanted it to go on the paper, he drew it. If he didn’t like something, he erased it. He couldn’t do that with life.

Someone cleared their throat beside him, and he glanced up, surprised. Astrid stood a few feet away, leaning on her crutches. Her hair was still wet, and she was dressed the most casually Hayden had ever seen—sweatpants and a t-shirt.

“I am here to solicit you help,” she said flatly, almost as if she didn’t want to be saying it, getting straight to the point.

He offered her a confused look.

“I can’t care for Stormfly with this stupid broken leg, and she doesn’t like any of the stable hands. She does; however, seem to like you, so I would like you to help me. Please.” The last word was said so forcedly that is seemed as if she was simply trying to sound like she was asking instead of telling him what to do.

“Oh, sure.” He stood and set his drawing aside, knowing there wasn’t much else he could say. At least she’d asked this time. He allowed her to lead the way to the barn, trying to stay slower than her halted steps. He did walk ahead to open the door for her. She might highly dislike him, but he wasn’t rude enough to let her struggle with it herself.

To his astonishment, she actually smiled her thanks. Perhaps she was nice…occasionally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think so far? Let me know in the comments!


	7. The Black Stallion

 Astrid led the way to Stormfly’s stall, the Arabian poking her head out and nuzzling her owner. She sniffed curiously at the crutches, but finally decided they were safe, and turned to greet Hayden.

“So, what exactly do you want me to do?” he asked, patting the horse’s neck.

“Just groom her and walk her out to the pasture,” Astrid replied simply, handing him a container full of supplies. “Think you can manage?”

He took it from her wordlessly and slid the stall door open, stepping in. He set the bucket down on the shavings and allowed the horse to sniff him again, rubbing her down with his hands before clipping her halter to the cross ties. Stormfly was so much nicer than Astrid.

“Why do you do that?” Astrid asked, seating herself next to the open door to watch.

“Do what?”

“Rub her down. She gets plenty of attention.”

“It…it just helps her warm up to me. Trust me more before I start running brushes all over her. She’ll be calmer now that she knows she can trust me.”

Astrid shrugged, obviously not seeing his reasoning. It was true, Stormfly would likely not care if he started brushing her right away, but he never took chances. Especially not with Astrid’s horse.

He quickly finished brushing her coat, and tried to comb her mane and tail, but Astrid stopped him, saying that he only needed to pick her hooves. Stormfly didn’t hesitate to lift her foot for him, and he was done in no time. Clipping a lead rope to her halter, he undid the cross ties and lead her out of her stall, her hooves clopping on the cement floor.

Stormfly had such a graceful stride. Hayden had been told of her championship jumping abilities (or rather Astrid’s) but he would be surprised if the horse would make an excellent Dressage competitor as well. Her long legs and high-held head would be sure to catch any judge’s eye.

“Take her to the pasture on the left,” Astrid called after him.

He took Stormfly to the gate, leading her all the way through before releasing her. She pranced across the field to the other horses, her head and tail high. Yes, she would make a marvelous Dressage horse.

He walked slowly back to the barn, Astrid standing in the doorway waiting for him.

“Thanks,” she smiled(sort of), catching him off guard again. “I really didn’t want the hands to do it. She just doesn’t like them.”

He nodded thoughtfully, debating whether to tell her about Stormfly’s Dressage qualities. Astrid probably wouldn’t care what he thought. He was interrupted by a sudden banging, accompanied by squealing and whinnying.

“What was that?” He asked, stopping and glancing around the barn.

“Oh, that’s just the crazy rescue horse. He’s insane. I don’t know why we ever still have him; I haven’t even bothered to give him a name.” She gestured to the stall at the far end of the hall.

Curious, Hayden approached it, gazing in awe at the horse inside. The stallion was jet black, his eyes intelligent, but wild. The horse whinnied and kicked the metal side of his stall again, the loud bang seeming to upset him further.

“Like I said, he’s nuts,” Astrid muttered, coming up beside him.

“He’s magnificent.” Hayden stared at the gorgeous animal, studying the muscles rippling through the horse’s flank. He pawed at the ground, snorting and eyeing the two humans warily. He tossed his head, his overgrown black mane flopping side to side. His left hind foot was cocked and his ears were back. He was ready to buck.

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. We can’t ride him because he’s lame. And even if we could, he won’t let us near him. He straight up dangerous.”

“Lame?” Hayden finally tore his gaze away from the horse. This must have been the one he’d seen when he first arrived. He was even more amazing up close.

“Yeah. He was gonna get turned into dog food, so my mom insisted that we take him in. But he’s so dangerous that there’s really no point. We can’t let anyone near him.” Astrid picked at the nail polish on her thumb, bored. “I think we should just get rid of him.”

“He’s not dangerous,” Hayden replied softly, taking a step closer to the quivering horse. “He’s terrified. Horses are flight animals. If they can’t run, they feel threatened. Not only is he in a stall where he feels trapped, he’s lame. The combination makes him untrusting, but he’s not dangerous.”

Astrid stared at him, an eyebrow raised skeptically. “Right. The horse that has injured two of our farmhands, the guy from the rescue agency, and my dad, is not dangerous. You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m not. And I’ll prove to you that he’s not dangerous.” He dug a peppermint out of his pocket and slowly opened the stall door. The horse snorted angrily.

“What are you doing, you idiot?” Astrid gasped. “You’re going to get yourself trampled!”

“Shh.” He quieted her with a wave of his hand, holding out the mint to the stallion on a flat palm. He tried not to think about Astrid calling him an idiot.

The horse snorted and shook his head, adding an angry whinny. Hayden didn’t move, but simply held the candy quietly. The horse sniffed the air curiously. “You want it, don’t you?” He asked softly, his voice soothing. “You’re gonna have to come get it.”

“Hayden, get out of that stall!” Astrid hissed. “He’ll kick you like everyone else! You aren’t a horse whisperer!”

The stallion snorted and stepped back. Hayden fought the urge to sigh. He would never make progress if Astrid kept talking. “Come on, boy. It’s good, I promise.” His voice never left the soft, calming tone. The Friesian cautiously took a step toward him, stretching his neck out to reach the mint.

Hayden held his breath, praying Astrid would keep quiet. The horse took another step, and quickly licked the candy off his hand backing up to chew it. “Good boy.”

The stallion looked back up at him, his ears swiveled forward and trying to see if he had more sweets. “Good boy.” Hayden repeated, slowly approaching the horse, keeping his hands by his side. “Easy.”

The horse’s ears swiveled back, and Hayden stopped until they turned forward again. It seemed like hours when he finally reached the horse, and oh-so-slowly reached out to touch him. His breathe caught as his hand felt the stallion’s glossy coat for the first time. “Easy, good boy.”

He brought his right hand up next to his left and quietly stroked the horse’s neck and shoulders, hardly daring to breathe. The moment seemed like magic and passed like years. “Good boy.” Hayden reluctantly backed away, knowing better than to push his luck. As quietly as he could, he slide the stall door shut and brushed his hands off.

Astrid was staring at him, her mouth open. “How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“I don’t know, _touch_ the wild crazy horse!”

“He’s not crazy. He’s scared. He can’t run away, which is his natural instinct, so he becomes dangerous. He just needs someone to work at his pace and gain his trust.” Hayden glanced up at her, not understanding why this was such a shock to her.

“I don’t think you get it,” she said, still staring at him. “We have taken that horse to a dozen horse specialists who are supposed to be able to do what you just did. They didn’t even come close.”

“I guess I got lucky then,” he replied, shrugging. “I’m assuming he doesn’t like to be haltered, either.” He gestured to the horse.

Astrid blew a raspberry, fighting the urge to laugh. “Haltered? We have to tranquilize him to get a halter and stallion chain on him, and even then it’s a struggle.”

Hayden glanced around, and grabbed a red halter off a hook, fishing another peppermint out of his pocket. He undid the halter and attached it to the bars on the stallion’s window, so it was hanging in the stall. He carefully balanced the peppermint on the strap.

The horse’s ears swiveled around at the sight of the candy. He clearly wanted it, and took a cautious step forward. Nosing the halter a bit, he knocked the candy to the ground and liked it up.

“Is he toothless?” Hayden asked leaning closer as he failed to spot teeth in the horse’s mouth.

“No,” Astrid replied, shifting on her crutches. “The vet said his gums swelled up around his teeth because his last owner would leave a bit in his mouth for days. We did have to pull a few teeth because his mouth was infected, but he’s not toothless.”

“Will he ever be back to normal?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Well, his mouth might recover, but I doubt he’ll ever take a bit again.”

“What about his leg? Is it permanent?”

“Yeah. Do you always ask this many questions?”

“My dad thinks I do.”

A pause.

“Why do you care?” She went on, looking at the stallion. “The horse is good for nothing now. I guess that makes two of you.” She shot her piercing, pain-inflicting smirk at him.

He swallowed. Why did she have to be so hurtful? He wished she knew what it was like to be insulted on a regular basis. But there was no point in telling her. “He’s not good for nothing until he’s dead,” Hayden replied firmly. “Maybe I can make some sort of brace so he can walk again.”

Astrid quirked an eyebrow. “How would you do that?”

“Well, it would take a lot of thought and planning, and I’d somehow need to get my hands on the right materials, and the horse would obviously have to be trained to wear it but-”

“Tell you what,” Astrid jumped in. “If you keep taking care of Stormfly for me, I’ll get you all the materials and whatnot that you need to make this brace.”

Hayden fought to keep his jaw off the floor. Astrid was willing to help him? Granted, it was in exchange for something, but the fact that it was an exchange meant it was nothing short of a miracle. “Oh…uh, that sounds good to me.” It was the best response he could manage in his shock.

“Good. We have a deal.” She reached out and offered him a hand, which he nervously took and shook on the agreement. “Give me a list of what you need and I’ll have it by tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he mumbled as she crutched away, still in awe. She couldn’t possibly be serious, could she? Was she trying to embarrass him by going back on her word? Was there something about “caring for Stormfly” that she wasn’t telling him? He honestly wondered if he should back out of the deal for his own good, but the thought of the black stallion in the stall next to him quickly changed his mind.

He studied the horse’s muscles, realizing the horse had not been lame his whole life. His hind quarters and shoulders were far too powerful to have been born lame. Given the chance, Hayden knew the horse could run incredibly fast and have the stamina to keep it up.

Perhaps he’d been a racer. He could never race professionally, due to his breed, but smaller races were often held and were open to everyone. The horse was so spirited, a quality of every good racer.

The horse caught Hayden staring at him and snorted, pawing at the ground. “Easy, boy,” he soothed, dropping his gaze. “I don’t want to hurt to. I want to help. And if you’ll let me, I promise, someday you’ll run again.”

The horse obviously didn’t understand what he had said, but relaxed as Hayden talked. The boy knew horses enjoyed calming sounds, but he’d never quite seen a horse respond like this. This horse clearly liked _his_ , and only _his,_ voice.

There were noises coming from every direction, horses whinnying, birds chirping, people talking and working outside the barn, yet this horse was only paying attention to his voice. “You like it when I talk to you, huh boy?” Hayden rested his arm of the bottom half of the stall door. The horse turned his head to watch him, his ears forward and alert.

“What is it, boy? Do you just like my voice?”

The horse took a few wary steeps forward, sniffing Hayden’s face and nosing through his hair.

“Astrid doesn’t know what she’s talking about, does she? You’re not at all dangerous.” He carefully reached up and ran his hand down the horse’s nose, dust gathering under his fingers. “You could definitely use a grooming,” he chuckled.

Without warning, the horse started to lick Hayden’s hands, almost trying to nibble on his fingers. Confused, the boy stood and watched, as the action seemed oddly deliberate. Perhaps he still smelled the peppermint and wanted more. The black stallion turned and walked back to the other wall, gazing out the window at the other horses.

“Don’t worry, boy,” Hayden assured as he turned to leave. “If I have anything to say about it, you’ll be out there too.”


	8. For Once

Over the next few days, Hayden was shocked to find that Astrid actually meant what she said about helping him. He had nervously given her a list of items, and a few hours later, she’d handed him six bags of supplies and directed him to her father’s workshop.

As he worked on his design, Hayden quickly realized that the mechanism would be much more intricate than he’d envisioned. The straps to hold the brace in place could not just cross over the hind quarters, it must attach to something else. The easiest thing he could think of would be a saddle, and asked Astrid for an old one that he could redo.

She purchased a $4600 _Amerigo Vega Monoflap_ saddle without hesitation, claiming that is was really quite cheap. Hayden was tempted not to use it and buy himself a less expensive one, but didn’t want to upset her.

But while he was working on the brace, he slowly began to earn the Friesian’s trust. At some point he started to call the horse “Toothless,” and didn’t even realize he’d done so until Astrid overheard and got a laugh out of it. Toothless gradually allowed Hayden to pet and groom him, as long as there was peppermint involved.

It was an exciting day when Toothless allowed him to put a halter over his head, and eventually grew accustomed to it. School had started back up, but Hayden hardly even paid attention. He was the first one out the door when the bell rang, and ran to Astrid’s class to help her with her books. He’d found he could leave faster when he did so.

But Hayden and Toothless were not the only blossoming friendship. Astrid slowly spent more and more time in the barn with the two, normally on her phone as she talked to them. Hayden suddenly found that he liked her company, even if she did talk about modeling and fashion a little more than he enjoyed.

A month passed, and the brace in the workshop was nearly finished. Toothless had made such incredible progress that he now accepted peppermint from Astrid, though he would let her touch him. Hayden could walk him short distances on a lead rope, and put saddles and straps and blankets on him to get him used to odd objects touching his body.

The day finally came to try the brace, and Hayden gently placed the contraption on the horse, progressing only when the horse seemed comfortable. He left a few straps undone, leaving the brace unengaged as the three walked/ hobbled to the lunging corral.

Astrid left her crutches at the gate and headed to the center of the ring, lunge-line in hand. She walked without her crutches more than she should, but insisted it didn’t hurt.   

Hayden connected the last few straps, talking quietly to the horse. Toothless listened to his voice, just like he always did, he head hanging low and relaxed.

“We’re ready,” he called to Astrid. It was the moment of truth. Either the brace worked, or it didn’t, and he’d wasted an entire month.

Astrid nodded and clucked to Toothless, encouraging him to move forward. Hayden applied some pressure to the lead rope, and the horse’s nostrils flared as he pulled back. “Come on, bud,” Hayden encouraged. “Just a couple steps.”

Toothless snorted and tossed his head, refusing to budge. Astrid clucked again, tapping the whip on the ground next to his rear hooves. “Walk on, Toothless.”

Toothless didn’t want to go anywhere, and wouldn’t if he was being forced to. Hayden slowly eased off the lead rope and pulled a peppermint out of his pocket, unwrapping it tantalizingly. The horse was obviously interested.

“Yeah, you want it don’t you?” Hayden chuckled, holding it just out of Toothless’ reach. “Come on, buddy. Come get it.”

Astrid clucked, touching the top of his rear lightly with the end of the whip. “Walk on.”

Toothless stretched as far forward as he could, moving all of his feet but the left hind one. “Come on,” Hayden encouraged.

The horse slowly lifted his back foot, and quickly plopped it back down. But the horse seemed to realize something was different; his leg was not as weak and could support his weight. He carefully took as few experimental steps, trying to reach the candy without moving anymore than he had too. But as the horse discovered that his leg held him up, he began to hobble forward, getting accustomed to the new feeling.

“Atta boy, Toothless!” Hiccup praised, backing up as the horse walked forward, picking his head up as excitement entered his stride. Toothless whinnied with joy and picked up a trot, forgetting all about the mint.

Astrid laughed as the horse began to canter, clearly enjoying the freedom of being able to run. “Get out of the way!” she called to Hayden, Toothless barreling toward him.

Hayden laughed at the stallion’s pent up energy, and jumped out of the way just in time, ducking under the lunge-line. Toothless slowed and dropped his head, bounding forward and trying to buck. The brace wouldn’t let him fully extend his foot, so he danced around in circles, whinnying and tossing his head with glee.

He suddenly reared up on his hind legs, pawing at the air. Astrid dropped the line, stepping back as he came down next to her. He pushed his nose into her with a happy grunt, the first time he’d ever touched her, and trotted happily over to Hayden.

“You like that, huh boy?” Hayden rubbed the horse’s nose, Toothless pushing against him the way Stormfly did.

“You saw that right?” Astrid limped over, a giddy smile on her face. “He actually touched me! I’ve never felt that horse before now!”

“I think he enjoyed this,” Hayden chuckled, feeling the sweat under his mane. “He sure had a lot of energy in him.”

“No kidding!” Astrid giggled and took hold of the line again while Hayden walked around the horse to check the brace. It was a little mangled and could clearly use some more work, but it had worked.

“Hayden! Look!” Astrid hissed softly, from her place by Toothless’ head.

Hayden straitened and looked at her. She was slowly stroking the horse’s head, and his eyes were closing in relaxation. “He’s letting me pet him!”

Her eyes never left the horse, and her smile only grew as the horse leaned into her. Hayden smiled as he watched them. Astrid may not have seen potential in Toothless before, but she sure loved him now.

She finally glanced at him, beaming and giggling as the horse snorted indignantly, annoyed that the affection had stopped. She reluctantly let Hayden lead the horse to the small pasture next to the driveway, where he was turned loose. Astrid gathered up her crutches and hobbled over to the large Oak tree, sitting under it to watch Toothless find a spot to graze.

Hayden walked over and sat down beside her, leaning back against the trunk with a contented sigh.

“He looks so happy,” Astrid thought aloud, watching as the horse flicked his tail from side to side to swat away flies.

“Mm,” Hayden mumbled in response. “I can’t believe that brace actually worked.”

“Well, it did, and you should be proud of it. Toothless would still be stuck in a stall right now, but he’s not thanks to you.”

Hayden blushed and smiled, not quite sure if it was a compliment.

“How do you know so much about horses?” Astrid asked suddenly, messing with the fallen leaves on the ground beside her.  

He shrugged. “My mom, I guess. She loved horses, Friesians in particular. Ever since I was little, I can remember being at a barn, watching her work with her horses.” He smiled at the fond memory, trying to recall it in all of its beauty. “I was two the first time she put me on a horse. My feet didn’t come halfway down the saddle, my helmet was too big, and I wasn’t even holding the reins, but I guess it counts.”

Astrid smiled, picturing a two year-old Hayden on top of a horse as big as Toothless.

“My dad wasn’t happy when he found out she put me on a horse. He was never big on the idea—thought it was dangerous and useless it today’s world, but he let my mom have her horses. Most of them were rescues, so I guess that’s why I have a soft spot for them now. But I remember this one foal that she took in after its mother died. It was only a few days old, and we had to hand feed it around the clock, but it was so sweet. It would suckle on my fingers while I told it stories, until it fell asleep.” He smiled again. “Yeah, that little guy was my favorite. Anyway, whenever she acquired a new horse, she had a green line tattooed on their bottom lip. She used to tell me that she did it so they’d always be hers in some way, even if she had to sell them.”

“What did you name the foal?”

His smile faded and his throat tightened. “We didn’t.”

Astrid furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “Why not?”

“We didn’t have the chance.” He drew his knees up, subconsciously feeling his left ankle.

“Why?”

He swallowed. “When I was ten years old—that’s when we got the foal—my mom had picked me up after school and we left to take care of the horses. A drunk driver hit us…and my mom was killed instantly. I was in the hospital for a long time, and my dad sold the horses to help cover the medical fees.”

“Oh…” Astrid couldn’t manage anything else; for once she was speechless. She suddenly felt bad for him, but not just bad. She had never really felt this way before, and couldn’t even identify the emotion. She knew bad things happened to people, but as long as it wasn’t her, she didn’t think twice about it.

But…suddenly she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She couldn’t stop herself from watching the sorrow so clearly written on Hayden’s face, and the pain in his eyes. And for once…she cared. For once, she wanted to make him feel better. For once, she pitied someone other than herself. For once, it hurt to see someone else’s hurt.

“My left foot was almost crushed underneath the dashboard,” Hayden continued, as if he felt it was necessary to finish his story. “I had seven different surgeries to reset the bones, and I honestly wish they’d just taken my foot off. It might have been less painful.” He paused before continuing. “I still have a foot at least, even if it is basically useless. I can’t walk without a brace. I guess that’s why I wanted to help Toothless walk again. I know what it’s like to lose your freedom.”

Guilt tugged at Astrid’s stomach. She felt awful now, having complained to him about how much her leg hurt and how boring it was not to be able to do anything and forced him to be her personal servant. He’d gone through so much worse, and hadn’t even mentioned it.

She should apologize. She knew she should, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to do so.

“I should probably bring Toothless back in,” Hayden said suddenly, standing and brushing his pants off. “I don’t want to leave him saddled.”

Astrid bit her lip as he walked away, wishing she had the guts to tell him how sorry she was for the way she treated him. She had always thought of herself as a brave person, being unafraid to tell anyone anything.

She always did the talking for her friends, and wasn’t afraid to call someone out. She was bold and not afraid to show it, no matter how mean she might come across as. She had been dared to insult people, and did so without hesitation. She could stand up on a stage and give a speech without the slightest bit of stage fright. She had never even hesitated to speak her mind.

But now she was to ashamed to call after him; it would her well-tended pride far too much. She hung her head and hobbled back up to the house, and for once she wished she was a kinder person.

 

 


	9. Famous Last Words

“And so the guy walks up to me and asks for my number, and I’m like ‘no, get lost.’” Astrid set the currycomb she was using to groom her horse down and picked up another brush. “So then he stomps off like a two year old, and comes back with his girlfriend I guess, and tries to get her to get my number. She was totally confused until she figured out he was using her to get another girl’s number. She dragged him out of the room by his ear!”

Hayden laughed, running a comb through Toothless’ luxurious ebony mane. “And he was stupid enough to actually try that?”

“Apparently,” Astrid replied, adjusting the crutches that rested under her arms. “Ugh, I can’t wait to get rid of these things. They’re so uncomfortable and ugly.”

“Ugly? They automatically make people feel bad and do everything for you. If I were you, I wouldn’t care if they’re ugly.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not me, and I have to look good for all my Instagram pictures. Crutches are _not_ photogenic.”

“Are you saying you haven’t posted any pictures of those crutches?” He paused and raised an eyebrow.

“I tweeted about it. But no, no pictures.”

“Why? People would probably give you likes out of pity if for nothing else.”

“Because they’re ugly, and that will make the picture ugly.”

“Well, right now they aren’t. There’s great natural framing from the barn, the lighting behind you is just about perfect, and the gray in the crutches brings out Stormfly’s coat.” Hayden cocked his head and studied the different angles. It would make a great picture, actually.

Astrid gave a laugh. “It’s impossible to get a decent picture in this barn. But please, oh great camera master, try to take one.”

“Wow, such faith,” Hayden muttered sarcastically, pulling out his phone. “Okay, miss model, give me something to work with.”

Astrid flipped her messy ponytail dramatically, briefly striking a ridiculous pose as Hayden messed with his camera. She then moved over to Stormfly, and keeping on hand on her crutches, she used the other to gently guide her horse’s head closer and placed a kiss on her nose.

“Lean your head on Stormfly’s,” he directed, moving over a few steps. She obeyed, and Toothless snorted, upset he was no longer receiving the attention.

“Calm down, bud,” Hayden chuckled, handing his phone to Astrid. “One of those should be good.”

Astrid was surprised to find that they were in fact adorable, but still didn’t quite want them on her page. She could only imagine what a picture of her with sloppy, oily, frizzy hair and crutches could do to her large quantity of followers. She portrayed a perfect image, and didn’t want to ruin it with one photo.

“Pretty cute,” she admitted, passing the phone back to him. “Do you have Instagram?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I don’t know what a picture of me looking awful will do to my number of followers, so you post it and just tag me in it.”

Hayden fought the urge to roll his eyes. Astrid looked fine, cute even, with a messy ponytail and minimal makeup. If anything, the picture would add to her perfect image, because it would make her more down to earth and real. Nobody looked perfect all the time, and anyone who claimed to be was a fake. But there was no point in telling her; she was just as stubborn as he was.

“What’s your username?” he asked, opening up the “Tag People” option.

“Divinebeautyhofferson,” she answered, resuming her task of grooming her horse.

“Oh, cool,” he said, typing it in. “’Divine beauty’ as in what your name means, right?”

She stared at him. “Yeah. You are literally the first person to get that.”

He glanced up, surprised. “Oh, wow. What do you want for a caption?”

“I don’t care. Just give yourself photo credits.”

A minute later Astrid’s phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to look at the notification. “@hiccup.haddock3 took a photo of you,” she read aloud. “You don’t say!” She slid her phone back into her pocket, but stopped. “Wait, your username is hiccup.haddock3? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Hayden lifted one of Toothless’ hooves and started to pick it. “Well, the ‘3’ comes from me being the third generation of Haddocks; the ‘haddock’ comes from me being a Haddock-”

“Well, duh,” Astrid interrupted.

Hayden ignored her and went on. “And the ‘hiccup’ is a little harder to explain. My little sister-”

“You have a sister?” Astrid jumped in again. “When did that happen?”

“When I was three and my mom got pregnant and had a baby girl. Voila…sister.”

Astrid groaned and kept brushing.

“Anyway, I used to get the hiccups a lot when I was younger, and she always called me ‘Hiccup.’ I don’t think she even knew my real name.”

“Aw, she sounds cute!”

“She was. She was also very opinionated, stubborn, sassy, argumentative, feisty, the queen of temper tantrums, and the majority of the time a snob. But yeah, totally adorable.”

Astrid laughed. “So do you actually like her or not?”

“Oh, yeah, we loved each other. In our own bickering, name calling, drive my parents insane kind of way.”

“Why do you keep describing her is past tense?” Astrid nearly clapped a hand over her mouth at the insensitive sentence that had come out of it. For all she knew, his younger sister could have been killed in that accident as well.

“When Cabella was born, they got some paperwork lost and mixed up, so my dad was not her legal guardian. We didn’t know, so when my mom was killed, she automatically got put in a foster care system. The last time I saw her was in the hospital, since she was allowed to say goodbye to me. Dad tried to get her back, but with everything going on with me and the whole missing paperwork ordeal, we eventually lost track of her.”

“That’s terrible!” Astrid breathed; slightly glad Cabella was at least _alive._ “And you never saw her again?”

“Just that once in the hospital. I hope to reconnect with her at some point, but she had only just turned six when we lost her, so she might not even remember me. But yeah, that’s why my username is hiccup.haddock3.”

Toothless grunted and pushed his nose into Hayden’s back, asking for a peppermint. The horse was an addict. “No, bud,” Hayden chuckled, rubbing his nose, “Three is enough for now. I won’t have any left at this rate.”

“I think he’s ready to go out,” Astrid said, picking up her grooming supplies and putting it back in its container. “He seems pretty antsy.”

“Is that it?” Hayden asked the horse, running his hands across the stallion’s sleek, jet black coat.

Toothless snorted.

“I guess that’s a yes.” Hayden started tacking him up, crossing the straps to the brace over his hind quarters. “This is way too complicated to do every time,” he muttered, snapping the brace into place.

“I’ll lunge if you want to ride him,” Astrid offered, crutching over to help.

“Sounds good to me.” Hayden continued working as he actually thought about what she’d said. “Wait, what?”

“I’ll lunge if you want to ride Toothless,” Astrid repeated, glancing up at him with confusion.

“Ride Toothless? Astrid, I haven’t sat on a horse in seven years! And Toothless isn’t used to having someone on his back! Ride him? _That’s_ asking to get killed.”

“I don’t mean ‘ride’ as in gallop around while waving a cowboy hat, stupid,” Astrid groaned, reaching over the horse for a clasp. “I just mean sit on top of him. And that’s only if he will let you. But he’s more likely to let you sit on him than me.”

“I don’t know,” Hayden replied slowly. Astrid’s offer was tempting. He wanted so _badly_ to ride Toothless, but there were so many dangerous aspects to it.

“Come on. I know you want to ride him.” The knowing look she flashed him only weakened his defense further. “Just at a walk,” she went on, “and only for a minute. To get him used to being ridden.”

How was she doing this to him? He knew better that to ride a horse he knew basically nothing about, and yet he was giving in. She made it so tantalizing, so easy to do, and so worth doing. How dangerous could it be? He’d fallen off a horse before, and it didn’t hurt _that_ bad.

“Only for a minute,” he decided finally, “and only at a walk.”

“Great! I’ll get the stuff if you put Stormfly out.” She didn’t give him much of an option when she bolted off with her crutches. She was getting fast.

He walked Stormfly out to the paddock and let her loose, watching as she gracefully pranced away. She was truly a gorgeous horse, feminine and elegant.

He returned and lead Toothless out to the circular lunge ring, the horse growing more excited with every step. “Let’s let him run for a while,” Hayden called up to Astrid, already nervous about the situation. “Just to get all his energy out.”

She nodded from her place in the ring, and waited as Hayden clipped the lunge-line onto his halter. She clicked once, and the horse took off half prancing half cantering around the ring. He bucked a few times, tossing his head, but quickly decided to find a mint instead.

Toothless walked over and nuzzled Hayden’s pockets. The boy pulled one out and unwrapped it, offering it the horse. “So, you gonna let me ride you?” he asked, stroking the horse’s nose. Toothless was far too busy enjoying treat to respond.

“Want a leg up?” Astrid offered, obviously impatient to get going.

“Sure,” he replied, reaching for the helmet he’d placed on a fence post. He wasn’t really sure if he even remembered how to mount properly, so a leg up would help tremendously. Hayden passed the horse another mint to occupy him.

Astrid limped over, leaned over next to the horse with her fingers intertwined, palms facing up. Hayden swallowed nervously, and gripping the saddle as well as some of the horses mane, he placed his foot on Astrid’s hands, swinging his other leg over the horse’s back as she pushed him up.

Toothless hardly responded at all. He was far too interested in trying to locate a piece of mint that could have possibly fallen out of his mouth and onto the ground.

“See, it’s fine,” Astrid reassured with a smile, resuming her place in the center of the ring. “Walk on, Toothless.”

The horse reluctantly moved forward, but slowed as he realized there was a strange weight on his back. He turned his head and looked Hayden up and down.

“It’s just me bud,” he told the horse, excited as to how well the horse was handling being ridden. “Walk on.”

Toothless tried a few more steps, but was clearly not excited about carrying someone else. He stopped again and swatted at Hayden’s leg with his tail, as if the young man were a fly.

“What a lazy horse,” Astrid commented, a hand on her hip. “He’ll run and go crazy when it’s just him, but he doesn’t want to work harder when there’s someone on his back. He’s lazier than Nova!”

She glanced over her shoulder at the dog sleeping on the front porch of their house, basking in the late afternoon sun.

“Now _that_ is pure talent,” Hayden replied, shifting around in the saddle. He was sore all ready. “It’s hard to get lazier than Nova.”

The shifting seemed to encourage Toothless forward, and he slowly started to walk forward. His gate was smooth and steady, his hips swaying in a calming rhythm. In a word, floaty. That is, if floaty were actually a word.

“Well, what do you know, he’s not lazier than Nova after all!” Astrid picked up the slack in the line, turning to keep up with the horse.

 

Hayden let out a long sigh, relaxing into the stallion’s smooth walk. It felt good to be back on a horse. He was painfully out of practice, but he honestly didn’t care at this point.

Sudden barking filled the fall afternoon, and a squirrel, followed by Nova, darted through the rings and between the horse’s legs. Toothless whinnied, his ears pinned to the back of his head. Nova kept barking. The squirrel darted back across the ring in search of a tree, and the dog crashed into the horse’s legs.

Toothless reared up, whinnying loudly. Hayden tried to stay balanced as the stallion came crashing down, causing the boy’s teeth to slam together. The horse took off galloping, and Hayden slipped to the side and lost his grip. The ground met him much sooner than he expected, knocking the wind out of his lungs and jarring every bone in his body. Stunned, he remained motionless in the dirt.

“Move!” Astrid screamed suddenly, doing her best to control the frightened horse. Toothless thundered around the ring, his dangerous hooves cutting into the dirt. At the last possible second, Hayden rolled out of the way and jumped up to grab the dog.

He was still trying to catch his breath as Toothless broke away from Astrid and crashed through the gate to the ring, racing back to the barn. Astrid grabbed the dog and Hayden took off after the horse.

How could he have been so stupid? He had known trying to ride Toothless was a bad idea. He, or Astrid, or Nova, or Toothless, could have been badly injured. He was glad to find that the stallion had taken shelter in his stall, and he entered to untack the horse, holding out a mint as a peace offering. The horse took it, still quivering. Hayden mentally kicked himself.

“‘Just at a walk’ she said. ’It’ll be fine’ she said.” Hayden grumbled as he unhooked the brace. “Just add those to the list of famous last words.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys...Divinebeautyhofferson and hiccup.haddock3 are real instagram accounts! I of course have permission to use them. If you want, go check them out! (After you leave some feedback here ;))


	10. Stormy Weather

Hayden and Astrid sat at the table silently eating dinner. Hayden was afraid to mention the events of the afternoon for fear of what Astrid would do if her mother found out, but he didn’t know she was just as worried as to what would happen to her. Gail would _not_ be pleased to know that they had foolishly tried to ride an untrained horse.

Hayden didn’t want to say much anyway, as his head was pounding. He didn’t have any pain medicine with him because he’d tried to overdose on it a few years before, and Gail would be very reluctant to give him any. He truly only wanted enough to cure his headache.

Astrid was clearly not that hungry, and kept twirling her spaghetti around her fork.

“My, the two of you are certainly not the most talkative bunch tonight,” Gail said suddenly. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” they answered unanimously, sharing a quick glance to warn the other not to mention anything about Toothless.

“I understand this is your last week of school before Thanksgiving break,” Gail went on, trying to get them to talk.

“Yep,” Astrid muttered, pushing her meatballs around.

“Do you have any homework due in the morning?”

“No,” Hayden answered for both of them. They had already discussed the topic earlier.

“How has your leg been today, Astrid?”

“Fine.” She stared at her plate.

Gail crossed her arms. “Alright. There is obviously something wrong, because I normally can’t get a word in with how much you two talk. What is going on?”

“Nothing,” Astrid replied casually, putting on a peppier persona. “Just tired, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I’m ready for that break,” Hayden agreed. He was tired too. Exhausted, actually. His bones were aching, his joints throbbed, and he could feel his heartbeat in the bridge of his nose. He wanted nothing more than to collapse in bed after a hot shower. But he could do neither until he finished the pile of homework (due in a few days) he had stacked on his desk.

Thunder rolled outside, indicating an approaching storm. Hades growled softy from his place in the corner, and Nova crawled under the table, though she was more than likely just looking for scraps. A server came out with a tray of cheesecake, and Astrid eagerly took a piece. Gail accepted one as well, but in a much more sophisticated fashion.

The server walked over to Hayden, holding out the tray. Hayden knew enough about etiquette to understand that he should take it just to be polite, but he really didn’t want it or any other dessert at the present. “No, thank you,” he said softly hoping that no one would take it personally. “I’m not very hungry.”

Astrid shot him a strange look, knowing he would rarely pass up dessert. It was true; he did have a sweet tooth. Thunder rolled again, and he realized he’d been staring. “May I be excused?” Hayden asked suddenly. “I have some homework to finish up.”

“Of course,” Gail replied with nod. She glanced at her daughter. “Perhaps you should do the same.”

Hayden wasted no time in pushing away from the table and walking toward the staircase, but by the time he made it to his room, he felt as if he’d run a marathon. He plopped down at his desk, out of breath and if at all possible, more exhausted than he was before.

He pulled out his math textbook and started on his homework, but found himself unable to concentrate. Even science was a struggle for him as he worked, and he _loved_ science. His head was clanging like a gong, his muscles ached, and his eyes drooped in weariness. Once he had finally finished, he changed his clothes and crawled into bed, forgetting all about his hot shower. He was just too tired.

The storm raged outside, lightning splitting across the sky and thunder clapping. The wind howled and frantically battered the trees, rustling their bare branches.

Astrid lay in bed, attempting to read a book despite the noise. It wasn’t a very good book so far, but the title had caught her attention, and she wanted to know how it correlated with the story. But as of the present, it was yet another sappy love story. Astrid was beginning to wonder if she would ever even want to fall in love, especially if this was a sample of it. According to this book, being in love meant swooning at the littlest thing and wearing pretty dresses to impress lover-boy.

She had to admit, the 18th century time frame of the book was intriguing, but she’d had just about enough of the tea and dancing. When was the good part?

Astrid glanced tiredly at her clock. _12:02._ Sighing, she set the book down on her night stand and turned out her light. Nova shifted around on the bed next to her, snoring quietly.

But as Astrid lay in bed, listening to her dog and the storm, a new sound started to take precedence—coughing. Confused, she sat up and listened more closely, trying to decipher where it was coming from. The coughing was consistently growing louder and harsher.

Astrid realized it must be Hayden who was coughing, and her first thought was to groan and complain, and possible go tell him to keep it down. But before she jumped out of bed, another thought came to her. If it was Hayden, he probably didn’t _want_ to be up at midnight coughing up a storm.

Thunder rolled, and Astrid smiled at her mental pun. She rolled over, deciding it was best to just ignore it.

But as the coughing persisted, Astrid began to wonder if Hayden was okay. It almost sounded as if he were in pain, or at least some. Without giving herself the time to reconsider, she crawled out of bed and tiptoed (limped, rather) down the hall. She rounded the corner and noticed light streaming from Hayden’s mostly closed door, and she quietly pushed it open.

His lamp was on, and her eyes took a moment to adjust to the sudden brightness. Hayden was curled up on his bed, coughing violently. He whimpered softly and tried to pull the blankets closer around him before coughing consumed him again. He was too late.

“Are you okay?” Astrid started slowly, cautiously steeping into his room.

Trying to stifle a cough, he turned over to look at her. “Not particularly,” he managed to choke out, sniffling. Dark circles had formed under his eyes since dinner, and his puffy nose was chapped and swollen—flaming red, just as his cheeks. “Sorry if I woke you up.”

“Oh, no. I was reading.” She paused, not exactly sure what she should say next. “Are you sick?” _Duh, of course he’s sick,_ Astrid inwardly scolded herself. _What kind of question is that?_

“Yeah,” he replied, doing his best to keep from coughing. “You shouldn’t be around me. I’m probably contagious.”

“Do you want anything? Medicine, that is.” Astrid couldn’t leave without offering to help; and something told her he could use some compassion.

He didn’t reply at first. “Some decongestant would be nice,” he sniffled finally. No need to mention he wasn’t supposed to have it without Gail’s approval. He was too miserable to care if he got in trouble.

Astrid gave a quick nod and backed out the door. She returned quickly, carrying an armful of supplies and a glass of water. Hayden rolled over slowly, biting his lip at the way his muscles ached. He wiped his sore nostrils on his sleeve, trying to ease the constant flow of liquid. 

She handed him a thermometer and instructed him to put in under his tongue. He reluctantly obeyed, wondering where the thermometer had been. It would be just like Astrid to give him a dirty one. It seemed like ages before the device beeped, and Hayden pulled it out to check the reading. He groaned.

“What’s it say?” Astrid asked, looking up from whatever she was doing with the medicine.

“102.6 Fahrenheit.” No wonder he felt so awful.

“I know it’s in Fahrenheit degrees,” Astrid snapped back, though not as harshly as usual.

Struck by a feverish hot flash, Hayden frantically clawed his way out from under the blankets. Harsh, barking coughs ripped his lungs, tearing apart his raw throat. He rubbed his neck gingerly, as if would somehow ease the pain.

“Does your throat hurt?” Astrid suddenly seemed to be concerned. Maybe even…sympathetic.

He nodded, shifting under the covers to find a less achy position. He sneezed, groaned as the throb in his head only worsened. His eyes watered, and suddenly cold again, he pulled the blanket back over his shoulders.

“How bad?” Astrid pressed, looking as if she might actually care.

“Just enough to make swallowing pretty difficult.”

“Hang on, I might have something to help.” Astrid dashed out of the room, leaving Hayden quite dumbfounded. Why in the world did she suddenly care? What was she buttering him up for?

Astrid returned for the second time, carrying what looked like a medicine cup for little kids. _That’s_ what she was up to. She was going to give him kid medicine, that he could refuse without her beating him up, and probably post it online. Perfect. Just perfect.

“I used to get sore throats a lot until last year,” Astrid was saying, “This stuff is really strong and nothing short of a miracle.” She looked at the back of the box. “How much do you weigh?”

He fought the urge to groan aloud. Of course, of _course,_ she would ask that. He didn’t have to be very smart to know she’d post that online too. But it wasn’t like he could refuse to tell her. This was Astrid; he knew better than to make her mad. “170.” He was tempted to round it up a few pounds, but he’d learned the hard way what too much medication could do, and did _not_ want to repeat it.

Astrid raised an eyebrow at the number, almost like she didn’t believe him, but with a quick glance decided he was telling the truth. She read over the box again and pulled the bottle out. At least _it_ looked slightly less kidish. She reached forward to set the box down on Hayden’s nightstand.

He suddenly sneezed, and didn’t cover his nose in time. Astrid drew back in horror, her bare arm glistening from the fluid. Hayden was just as horrified. Now he was definitely going to get it. “Sorry,” he squeaked out, his voice embarrassing him further by cracking.

Astrid glanced slowly from her arm to him. He could almost see white hot lava bubbling up inside of her, gurgling to the surface, ready to explode. Oh, he’d done it now! “I’m so sorry,” he stuttered. “I didn’t mean to, really.”

She drew in a deep breath, licking her lips slowly. “Just…don’t let it happen again.” She turned away, and used his hoodie to clean her arm off. He didn’t object in the slightest.

She handed him the small medicine cup, which he drank reluctantly. He instantly found it to be absolutely repulsive, and could hardly bring himself to finish it. Astrid wordlessly handed him the water and decongestant pills, which he took gratefully. He almost choked on the second pill, but luckily didn’t cough it or anything else up. Hayden was pleasantly surprised to find that swallowing no longer hurt.

“Wow, that stuff really does work,” he said softly, trying another experimental swallow.

“It had better,” Astrid replied as she put the drugs back in their boxes. “That’s about the strongest you can get. I used my fair share of it.”

“Why?” Hayden’s curiosity got the better of him, especially now that it didn’t hurt to talk.

“I used to get a really bad sore throat at least once a month. It would make me miss school and it hurt too much to eat. I’ve had Strep Throat almost seven times in my life. The last time I had it, it got out of hand and spread to my tonsils. I had to be hospitalized and they removed them. I haven’t had a problem since.”

“I hate hospitals,” he murmured softly.

“Well, I certainly don’t _like_ them,” Astrid put in flatly, “but I don’t _hate_ them either. After all, I’d still be getting sick without them. Granted, they don’t smell very good, but they still serve a good purpose.” She look she gave him warned him not to challenge her opinion as she walked out. “But you should get some rest, or you might end up in one of those dreaded hospitals.”

Perhaps it was a joke, but he didn’t take it as one. He hated hospitals. Period.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Astrid actually being nice? Whoa. What got into her? An update will be coming soon, so keep reading to find out!


	11. Fake and Faker

Astrid left for school alone the next day, informing her mother that Hayden was sick. Gail, of _course,_ overacted and went up to make sure he was still alive, forgetting completely to see her daughter off. Astrid scowled and climbed into the Mercedes that was waiting outside for her. She angrily propped her elbow up on the window, staring out at the early morning scenery.

Why should Hayden get more attention than her? Why did he get to hog all her mother’s time? Why couldn’t she be the one getting special treatment?

She hated that guy. She hated that he stole her mother’s attention. She hated that he seemed to do everything better than her, especially with this stupid broken leg. She hated that he was taking care of her horse, she hated that he had been the one to tame Toothless, and she hated that Stormfly loved him so much. She hated that his grades were better than hers, she hated that he was so good at photography, she hated that he was so adorably funny, she hated that she loved his eyes and smile and messy brown hair and-

Astrid stopped mid thought, embarrassed for having such ridiculous things in her head. She did not _love_ anything about him. She hated him. That was that. He was not attractive at all, and yet she found her heart tripping over itself as she pictured him.

What was her problem? Maybe she was nervous about the upcoming test. Yes, that had to be it. She did not like Hayden Haddock and she never would. She would rather date Snotface than Hayden. Thinking about disliking him seemed to cure her racing heart and sweaty hands.

“We’ve arrived, Miss Hofferson,” the chauffeur announced suddenly, interrupting her train of thought. They must have been sitting in front of the school for a while; Jim wouldn’t have spoken otherwise.

“Oh, right,” Astrid stuttered, grabbing her bag and scooting over to the door which Jim held open for her. She slid out of the vehicle, allowing the man to reach in and pull out her crutches for her. She adjusted them under her arms as Jim shut the door, nodded to her, and climbed back in the driver’s seat.

Astrid was shocked to find that she missed the way Hayden always thanked the man. She usually thought of it as annoying. Jim didn’t need to be thanked, he was hired help. It was his job, and he was paid for it. But Hayden went ahead and thanked him for driving them, and thanked him for picking them up that the end of the day. And the chauffeur seemed to appreciate it.

Astrid’s friend’s were waiting for her under the awning over the entrance, and waved when they say her. She flashed them a smile, though it was fake—just what fake friends deserved. They didn’t really like her, and she knew it. They just wanted to be around her because she was pretty and popular. She crutched over the group, putting on her “perfect” persona—also fake.

“Astrid! You look adorable!”

“That sweater is sooo cute!”

“Girl, you are rockin’ those pants!”

“Are those new earrings? They’re awesome!”

The compliment’s came flying in, one after another. She knew she looked adorable. She knew her pants showed off her curves perfectly—her stylist had picked them for that purpose. But for once Astrid wished that she wasn’t being complimented on the way she looked. She wanted to be liked even if she was the ugliest girl in school.

“Oh, this old thing?” Astrid giggled lightly, tugging at her sweater. “It’s been in my closet for ages.” _Why are you so fake?_ She asked herself sadly.

“Still, you’re fashion taste is goals,” Hannah replied with envy in her voice. “You always look fabulous.”

“Well, these crutches aren’t very fabulous looking,” Astrid frowned, though still keeping her expression attractive.

Responses of “they’re fine” and “you totally pull them off” accompanied her as she led the way inside. She longed for just one of them to tell her the truth she already knew. They looked ridiculous. Why couldn’t any of them just be honest, and then laugh with her about it?

“Hey, Sasstrid, where’s your little fishbone sidekick?” Sam taunted from behind her. He knew very well how much she hated the name “Sasstrid” and was risking quite a bit to use it.

But Astrid knew that it would bother him more to be ignored, so she kept walking.

“I hope you know what kind of  kid you have hanging around,” Sam went on, cracking his knuckles loudly. “He’s a real loser. Tried to OD and a bunch of other nutty stuff.”

Astrid rolled her eyes in a “keep trying” way, earning a giggle from some of the others.

“He cuts himself too, you know. His last school turned him in to a mental ward for being such a psycho. It’s pretty unfortunate that his dad is the mayor. Fishbone really ruined his rep.” Sam was obviously annoyed that Astrid hadn’t responded yet, though she was growing more annoyed by the minute. “Hey, does he ever eat? I mean, he’s so skinny you can’t see him when he turns sideways.” The other boys following Sam laughed heartily.

“Why’s he such a nut job anyway?” One of them asked.

Sam snorted. “Cause his mommy died,” he replied a mocking, toddler lisp. “And it made him sad.” Hearty laughed followed.

“Mommy’s wittle boy can’t man up!”

The comment stopped Astrid in her tracks, fuming in anger. She could admit that Hayden was a Fishbone, he was annoying, and he was weird. But there was no way on planet earth she would let Sam mock him for missing his mother.

“Enough with the crap, Sam!” she shouted, whirling around as best she could. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about! When is the last time you lost someone?! You couldn’t handle losing your pet hamster as well as Hayden did with his mom!”

Sam’s cheeks turned red. The hamster was a very, very embarrassing fact about himself that he did not want shared. Hamsters weren’t manly at all.

“And maybe he is a Fishbone, but at least there some filling up his head other than air like yours! Maybe he doesn’t have biceps of iron or abs of steel, but he has a heart of gold, which is more than you could ever even _dream_ of having! So go ruin someone else’s day; I’m done with you and your miserable rumors! Take your stupidity and get lost!”

Sam drew back in surprise, as did everyone else. Even Astrid was surprised by her outburst. Had she actually just _defended_ Hayden? And to Sam, of all people? She felt her cheeks starting to burn, and she turned quickly and headed for her classroom.

Astrid slide into her desk, laying her crutches down on the floor beside her. They were so inconvenient. She pulled out her history textbook and opened it, pretending to read so that the others would leave her alone.

What had she been thinking? She’d never, ever lost her temper in front of her friends. Sure, she’d yelled at a few people and gotten upset with a few more, but this…she’d been furious, enraged, maybe even livid. But why? Surely it couldn’t have been over Hayden, could it? After all, she hated him.

Nothing made sense. She hated Hayden, she really did. She could feel anger bubbling up in her the minute she thought of him. And yet…she could only picture his dorky smile, messy hair, freckles, and perfect, sparkling eyes. She sighed.

Sighed?! She _sighed_ over him?! Astrid Iona Hofferson did not _sigh_ over anyone! She was far too independent and tough to be sighing over boys! She refused to be the mushy, weak, and frilly type of girl. She was tough, bold, confident, strong…so why did she feel like crying?

Class had started—how long ago she didn’t know—and the teacher was explaining something about the French Revolution. Astrid raised her hand, suddenly choked up. Ms. Cansen nodded to her. “May I use the restroom?” Astrid said softly, swallowing the urge to cry.

“Can’t you wait until the end of class?”

She shook her head, staring at her book with tears forming in her eyes.

“Very well. Be back in five minutes.”

Astrid grabbed her crutches and hobbled out of the classroom as fast as she could, darting across the hall and into the bathroom. She locked herself in a stall, flipped the toilet seat down, and plopped down onto it. 

Tears flowed freely, though seemingly without a cause. She sniffed and tried to calm down, but somehow she was so worked up and emotional that it only made matters worse.

Why was she even crying? She really didn’t know. Maybe she was just mad. She was mad at Sam for being a jerk, she was mad at herself for overreacting and for standing up for Hayden, and she was mad at her so called friends for being so fake.

But who was she to talk? She was fake too. She wasn’t as tough as she made herself up to be. She certainly wasn’t flawless, no matter what she made people believe. And she was…lonely.

Astrid gave a quiet sob, hugging her arms closer around herself. She was so, so lonely. She had tons of friends, none of which really cared about her. Her mother loved her, she really did, but she gave so much attention and affection to other people that she never had any left for Astrid. He dad, well, he was never around. She wasn’t surprised when he never showed up after she broke her leg.

She had millions of followers on social media, but the only thing she knew about them was their username. The only true friends she had were Nova and Stormfly, and as much as they loved her, they weren’t enough.

She was the girl who had everything, and she was the loneliest person she knew. She was sitting in a bathroom stall crying. In the movies, that wasn’t what the pretty, popular girl did. This scenario fit the outcast, the unpopular, and the unwanted girl, after the popular girl been mean to…

Then it hit her. No one really liked her because she was such a horrible person. Astrid could only imagine the people who had locked themselves in the bathroom to cry because of her. She had ruined the reputation of lots of people, and ruined the day of countless others. She was selfish. She was prideful. And she was _mean._

Even as she “defended” Hayden, she’d still insulted and mortified Sam. She probably couldn’t be nice if she tried. She was mean to the core. People wanted connections with her because they wanted to be popular too, not because they wanted to be her friend.

When her schoolmates would look back years from now, they would remember her as “the mean girl.” She didn’t want that, but she didn’t know how she could be anything else. She didn’t want to give up her popularity, but she desperately wanted to be liked. The thought made her cry harder.

“Astrid? Are you in here?” A voice from the doorway asked. It sounded like Madeline.

Astrid hesitated. The wasn’t any point to trying to remain undiscovered; Madeline could probably hear her crying. Still, she preferred to be alone. “Yeah,” she sniffled back reluctantly.

“Are you okay?” Astrid heard Madeline step through the door, and walk toward her stall.

Astrid forced herself to get control and unlocked the door, revealing Madeline on the other side. “I’m fine,” Astrid replied, brushing tears out of her eyes. She wished she could tell the other girl everything that was going on in her head, but knew she couldn’t. “My leg just started hurting really bad.”

“Oh no,” Madeline’s eyes got wide. “Should you go to the nurse?”

“No, I’m okay. I just forgot to take my medicine this morning.” Astrid wanted to kick herself. She may be mean, but she wasn’t a liar. Well, she was now. “Tell Ms. Cansen I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Are you sure? I can stay and help you get cleaned up if you want. Oh, and I think I have some Ibuprofen in my bag. Let me get it for you.”

Astrid smiled a little. At least Madeline wasn’t fake. She was nice to everyone, and the sweetest person Astrid knew. “No, I don’t need it. I’m good now, really.” Astrid paused then forced herself to add “But thanks anyway.” It felt awkward to thank her, Astrid never really thanked anyone. One of the other reasons she didn’t have friends. She felt herself crying again.

“What’s wrong?” Madeline asked, looking as if she might cry too. She was very empathetic.

“Just…just stuff,” Astrid managed to whisper, doing her best not to sob.

Madeline wrapped her arms loosely around Astrid’s shoulders, obviously too nervous to give her a real hug. Astrid had never accepted hugs in the past. “Do you want to talk about it?”

 _Yes!_ Astrid desperately wanted to say. _I want to tell you everything! I want you to understand. But after everything I’ve said and done to you, you would just laugh in my face._ “Not really.” Astrid slowly got a hold of herself, and crutched over to the sink to wash her face.

Madeline turned to leave, but paused as she opened the door. “If you need want to talk, I’ll listen, okay?” Her big brown eyes were full of sincerity. She seemed to really care.

Astrid nearly told her that it was none of her business, but stopped. Madeline didn’t deserve that. She was too kind. She just wanted to help. Astrid offered her a smile, a real one. “Thanks, Maddie.” _I wish I could be like you._


	12. A Girl's Best Friend

Astrid sat in the passenger’s seat of her mother’s car almost to giddy to think straight. After two long, horrible, miserable months she was finally free of her dreaded crutches. She rest her feet on top of the dash board, just to embrace the fact that her leg was fully healed.

“Now, remember Astrid,” her mother was saying as she put on her turn signal. “Just because you don’t need the crutches anymore does not mean you can do everything you want to. You can’t ride any faster than a trot, and absolutely _no_ jumping.”

“I know, mom,” Astrid almost rolled her eyes even though the comment didn’t really bother her. She was too happy.

“And no flips or hand springs either,” her mother went on. “Your leg can’t take the pressure yet.”

“Okay, I’ll stick to walk-overs and cartwheels,” replied growing slightly exasperated. She couldn’t really be mad, though. Everything was just so amazing at the present. She could go home and do whatever she wanted without those dang crutches.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out curiously. The small green “Messages” icon in the bottom showed a red circle and a “1,” so she tapped on it. She was slightly surprised to find that it was from Madeline.

“ _Hi, Astrid,”_ she read silently, adjusting in her seat. “ _I know we don’t talk much, but I just wanted to make sure you were okay after what happened this morning. I hope you feel better!”_

Astrid couldn’t help but smile. Madeline had been so kind to her, and even now she was following up to make sure she was okay. At lunch, when everyone was asking where Astrid had gone, Maddie hadn’t said a word about the fact that she’d been a miserable sobbing mess to avoid embarrassment for her.

Astrid felt awful as she thought of the cruel things she’d said about Madeline in the past. Everyone knew Maddie was fairly shy, and after Astrid had called her a wallflower, the poor girl had been teased relentlessly. Astrid had made fun of her for other various things, and even stuffed her locker full of toilet paper as a joke, but Maddie still wanted to make sure she was okay.

It felt good, and yet it felt awful. Astrid wished she would just take everything back, so the least she could do was answer Madeline and thank her again. She did so, mentioning that the crutches were gone for good.

Madeline answered back quickly, trying to apologize for dropping Astrid in the first place.

“ _It’s Snotface’s fault,”_ Astrid typed back. “ _After I plan my revenge, we’ll just forget the whole thing.”_

 _“Revenge?”_ Came the swift response.

“ _Oh yeah. I really want to embarrass him in front of his team or something.”_ Astrid paused before adding: “ _U should come over and help me plan it sometime.”_

She turned to her mother. “Mom? Can I have a friend over tonight?”

Her mother thought for a minute. “Well, if Hayden is still sick I wouldn’t suggest it—your friend might get sick. But I’m okay with it.”

Astrid really did roll her eyes, remembering Hayden’s illness. Of course he would inconvenience her…again. “Is he better yet?”

“I doubt it, sweetheart; it was some kind of flu virus.”

 _Great…_ Astrid mentally drawled. _I’ll probably get it too. Yay._ She was horrified to discover that his sarcasm was staring to wear off on her. Her phoned buzzed again.

“ _Sounds fun, lol! When are you free?”_ Madeline had texted.

“ _I’m free today, but Hayden is sick so u probably shouldn’t come over.”_ Astrid hit send with a huff.

“ _Oh no! Tell him I hope he feels better!”_

For some reason, Astrid found herself angry at Maddie for sympathizing with Hayden. They only had one class together, and yet she still wanted him “to feel better”. Why did she care? Astrid sure didn’t.

“ _Sure,”_ Astrid texted reluctantly as they pulled in her driveway. “ _Gtg, I’ll text u later.”_

Astrid couldn’t have been happier as she climbed out of the car and strode up to the door with the aid of crutches. Boy, did it feel good! She climbed the stairs confidently, walked into her room, and was eagerly greeted by Nova. She heard Hayden cough in the other room, and briefly wondered if she should bother telling him what Madeline had said.

She sighed and walked down the hall, trying to come up with a reason to avoid it. But she had told Madeline she would, and she didn’t want to be a liar two times that day.

His door was open and she peaked in, hoping he was asleep or in the bathroom or something. He was in bed, reading a book.

“Hayden?” she said softly, hardly daring to step though the door. She did _not_ want to get the flu.

He turned, offering her a half-hearted smile. “Hey,” he croaked, sounding much worse than the night before. “No crutches?”

“Yeah, I got rid of them today. Uh, do you know Madeline from school?”

“In history class? Yeah.”

“She, uh, wanted me to tell you that she hopes you feel better.”

“Oh. Can you tell her-” a coughing fit cut him off, the harsh spasm nearly forcing him upright. Hades’ head appeared on his other side; apparently he’d been sleeping next to the sick young man.

Astrid’s eyes widened in surprise. Hades wouldn’t even sleep next to _her._ Jealousy reared its ugly head, and she bit her lip to stay calm. Now the dog that was trained to protect her, be loyal to her, was snuggling up with _him._ “Hades!” she snapped, her eyes flashing with anger. “Come!”

The dog obediently, and yet reluctantly, jumped off his bed and followed her back to her room. This was ridiculous. Why in the world would Hades be showing affection to Hayden and not her?

She plopped down on her bed, calling the big German Shepherd up beside her. Hades simply walked somberly back to his bed in the corner and lay down. Great. He didn’t even _want_ to be around her. Did he not like her or something?

It dawned on her that she never gave the dog much of a reason to like her. She never brought him anywhere unless she had too, she never gave him any attention, and she rarely bothered to look at him unless he was doing something she didn’t like. No wonder he preferred Hayden, the avid animal lover—he probably loved on the dog more than she’d ever done.

Well, that would have to change, she thought indignantly to herself. Hayden might be a horse whisperer, but he wasn’t going to steal her dog. She jumped up off her bed and marched into her closet, selecting a plastic bin from a top shelf. In it was piles and piles of papers but, but within a few minutes she had selected the one she wanted—Personal Protection Commands.

She knew the basic orders—sit, stay, come, down—but she knew Hades had been trained for much more and was capable of all of them. She remembered the dog trainer telling her to spend time with the dog, bond with him and review his commands. She’d at best done that twice. But better late than never, right?

“Hades, heel,” she told the dog firmly after glancing at the paper. The dog stood and walked over to stand beside her, then followed her down the stairs. She strode into the kitchen while zipping up her jacket, and when she was she no one was looking, she stole a jar of peanut butter from the refrigerator along with two spoons.

Hades eyed the jar with a hint of excitement, but he remained calm and did his job.

Astrid led the dog out onto the front yard,  a ways off from where some lawn service people were clearing leaves. She sat down under the dogwood tree, one of Hades’ favorite places to relax. The dog sat beside Astrid, then lay down on command.

She opened up the jar of peanut butter, scooped out a spoonful and stuck it in her mouth as she spooned some out for the dog. He only stared at it.

“Go on,” she encouraged. “Eat it.”

Hades didn’t budge.

Astrid scanned her paper, trying to figure out if he had a special command for eat. She knew the dog was trained not to eat anything—not even treats—unless it was kibble put in a dog dish.

She skimmed down the page a ways, searching for an answer.

 _Okay: tells the dog it may eat the food offered to it._ The command was simple enough. “Okay,” Astrid said without inflection, and Hades eagerly licked the peanut butter off the spoon, before gazing up at her for more.

“Let’s see what else you can do,” Astrid continued, scanning the page in search of a command. “Shake,” she told him, offering him her spare hand, suddenly wondering why “shake” was on the paper in the first place. Some protection that would bring.

Hades placed his paw in hers, never taking his eyes off the peanut butter jar. Astrid praised him and gave him another spoonful, and the dog thanked her by licking her chin with his peanut buttery breath. She laughed and pulled out her phone to capture the moment with a selfie.

Pleased with it, she stood and dished up more peanut butter. She put the dog in a “sit-stay” and ran across the yard, hopping over the fence into one of the corrals. “Come!” she yelled.

Hades leapt up off the ground and pounded toward her. He cleared the four foot fence with ease (much better than she had done) and slowed just in time to sit in front of her.

She laughed and gave him his treat, though he waited for an “okay” as usual. The two spent the afternoon together, exploring all of Hades’ commands and finishing up the last of the peanut butter. Astrid discovered that Hades refused to play fetch,  though he would pick something up or get something for her, but the retrieving game was out of the question.

Hades did, however, love to play hide and seek with the ball. Astrid let him sniff it before putting him in a “sit-stay” and hiding the toy. At the “go search” command, Hades would race around the yard, sniffing out the ball, and usually found it within a minute or less.

As they moved down the list of commands, Astrid noticed one that she did her best to avoid. It wasn’t that it was hard to do, or even a dangerous one. For some reason it just seemed like a bad idea, and she simply didn’t want to use it. But they had done everything else, and she realized she needed to review it along with all the other ones.

The command was simple: Release. It allowed the dog to do whatever it wished, within a realm of appropriate behavior. That was what worried her. If she “released” Hades, would he just run back to Hayden—especially now that the peanut butter was gone?

She stalled a little longer by grooming Stormfly and having Hades fetch her the brushes, which he did without mistake. But as the sun started to go down, and Astrid knew that her training session with the dog needed to end. Why did she care so much if Hades liked Hayden more than her?

She knew, though. She was tired of him being better. She was tired of not being liked. And it would appease her desire to be the best if Hades chose her over Hayden. As ridiculous as it seemed, it was true.

So preparing her pride to be bruised, she licked her lips and slowly said “Hades, release.”

The dog came over to her, licked her hands a few times, then trotted back to the house. Astrid watched somewhat sadly as he slipped in an open side door, obviously headed for Hayden. It made sense. Dogs were intuitive. Hades must realize what an awful person she really was.

She slowly made her way back to the house and up to her room. She turned into her door, and to her surprise, found Hades gnawing on a bone in the corner. She gave a laugh and sat down on the dog bed beside him, Nova immediately running over to join in. After a few more face-licking, tail-wagging selfies, she selected one to post.

She remembered a quote that she’d seen and immediately captioned the photo with “Whoever said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend never owned a dog.”


	13. To Fly Without Wings

Gail sighed and put the paper down, staring out the window of her office.  Sir Tarlo was brushing up against her legs, purring fiercely.  She smiled slightly and pushed back from the desk to give the cat room to jump on her lap.  He immediately did so, curling up in a fluffy white ball. 

The women caught sight of Hayden and the black horse in the ring, the animal cantering around the corral with his tail high.  Gail really didn’t know what to do.  She had tried everything she could think of to understand that boy, but nothing seemed to work.  He was just so…shy.  He wasn’t depressed.  He rarely, if at all, spoke badly about himself.  There had been no suicide of self harm attempts whatsoever.  He was just shy.

Hayden had been with her for three months, and the only thing that seemed to be wrong with him was the aftermath of such a harsh separation from his family.  He was eager to help with anything he could, he didn’t seem to lack motivation of any sort, and even while he’d been sick, he still had a positive attitude. 

There really wasn’t anything else she could do for him, and he would likely be better off going home—specifically because there would be no chance for Astrid to treat him badly.

But even that hadn’t been the problem she’d thought it would be.  This whole thing didn’t seem right.  Hayden was not at all how he’d been described, Astrid had actually been nice to one of her clients, and she’d had no problems whatsoever.  It just seemed to…easy to be right.

No matter; if Hayden could go home, then home he would go.  Gail pushed the cat off her lap and reached for the phone.

Meanwhile outside, Toothless snorted and kicked up his heals slightly and he cantered around the ring, tossing his mane impatiently.  _Let’s go for a real run,_ the horse seemed to say, eyeing the vast pasture that crossed the open hills.  Hayden chuckled at his eagerness.

“I know, bud,” he told the horse, giving the lunge line some slack.  “This ring is getting boring, huh?”

Toothless slowed and walked to the center where Hayden stood, nickering impatiently.   

“Sorry, boy, not today.  I’m still not 100% yet.” As if to prove it, he coughed into his elbow, sniffing from the cold air. 

“Hayden?  Do you have a minute?”

He turned, and smiled at Gail, standing just outside the fence.  “Sure,” he replied, dropping the line and walking over.

“I called your father today,” she started, wrapping her sweater around herself tighter.  “And we both agreed that you will be going home on Tuesday.”

A load of weight was suddenly deposited on his shoulders, trying to drive him into the ground.  He could hardly choke out an answer.  “Home?  But I’m not supposed to go home until…”

Gail nodded with a smile.  “Yes, but I decided you could go home early.  You are doing wonderfully, and this way you will be home in time for Thanksgiving.”

Hayden tried another response, but the words simply refused to come out of his mouth.  He didn’t want to leave!  Toothless was here!  Toothless was the best thing that had happened to him in years; he couldn’t leave now!  Gail was still talking about arrangements and whatnot, and Hayden nodded politely, but he hardly heard a word she said.

Gail turned to leave, and Hayden slowly walked over to the stallion.  The horse immediately picked up on the young man’s sudden mood change, and nosed at him sadly. 

“Oh, Toothless, I don’t want to go home,” Hayden blurted out suddenly, throwing his arms around the horse’s muscular neck.  “I don’t want to leave you.”

Toothless draped his head over Hayden’s shoulder, almost as if he were returning the hug.  A smile tugged at the boy’s lips, and he breathed in the stallion’s sweet, musty scent.  His fingers combed through the coarse mane, gently grooming out the tangles.

The horse pulled back suddenly, and began to nose Hayden’s pockets.  He chuckled.  “You’re an addict,” he told the horse with a laugh.  “It can’t possibly be healthy to consume the amount of peppermint that you do.”

Toothless paid no attention, and excitedly snatched up the candy that Hayden offered him.  His ears suddenly swiveled forward and he trotted over to the edge of the corral. 

Hayden knew what he wanted.  Toothless was built for running, and cantering in circles would never satisfy the horse’s burning desire to do so.  There miles of pasture that lay before them, and Hayden would be lying if he said he wasn’t longing to gallop across them too.

 _“Come on.  I know you want to ride him.”_ Astrid’s words flashed through his mind, taunting him, almost as if she were there to tempt him herself. 

But she wasn’t anywhere near him, and neither was anyone else.

It was just Toothless, himself, and miles of pasture ready to be raced across. 

Glancing behind him, Hayden grabbed the horse’s lead rope and tied the free end to the halter, forming a pair of make shift reins.  Toothless watched him curiously, his muscles tightening with excitement.

Hayden adjusted the brace and checked it for damage, and finally led the horse out of the corral, towards the back pasture.  Toothless tossed his tail impatiently.

Together they walked toward one of the smaller pastures.  Hayden opened the gate nervously and stepped in, latching it firmly behind him.  They walked a few more paces away from the gate, and Hayden halted the horse, awkwardly mounting bareback.

“Okay bud,” he started nervously, “let’s just take this nice and slow.”

Toothless exploded from his standing position and pounded across the field, Hayden hanging on for dear life and screaming at the top of his lungs.

The powerful horse quickly ran across the small pasture and galloped at full speed toward the fence. 

“No, no, no!” Hayden shouted at the horse, desperately trying to pull him to a stop.  There was no way on earth he could hang on if the horse tried to jump the five foot fence.

Toothless ignored him, throwing his head forward with every massive stride.  The stallion charged up to the fence, tucked his back legs underneath him and all but flew off the ground as he launched himself over the divider. 

Hayden had instinctively grabbed a fistful of mane, and was now clinging to the horse’s neck.  He slipped sideways as Toothless reached midair, but managed to pull himself into a balanced position as the horse hit the ground on the other side.

Toothless continued pounding away, charging across the pasture.  Hayden had no idea when the horse would stop; Toothless wasn’t even out of breath yet.

“SLOW DOWN!” he yelled as loudly as he could at the horse, though he had no control over the animal whatsoever.  He was an idiot.  He had known it wasn’t safe to ride this horse and yet he’d done it anyway…again.  What would his mother say to that?

Wait…he knew exactly what his mother would say.  Sit deep.  Relax.  Give the horse a reason to calm down; he’s responding to your emotions.  She’d told him what to do it he was ever on an out of control horse, though he’d been sure he’d never need to use the words of wisdom.

Hayden pushed himself upright and sank down onto the horses back, grabbing the reins and pulling back as hard as he could.  “Come on, buddy, work with me here.” He muttered gently, doing his best to calm his racing heart and trembling limbs.

And to his amazement, Toothless slowed.  His paced gradually changed to a canter, rolling and gentle.  Hayden fell into rhythm with the horse, lowering the reins and giving the horse slack. 

 _“Move with him,”_ he could hear his mother saying.  _“Don’t worry, he won’t let you fall.  Just relax.  There you go!  Did you feel the third beat that time?”_

Hayden smiled and closed his eyes, gently releasing the reins. 

_“Mommy, I’m doing it!  It’s like flying!”_

_“See?  I knew you could!  To ride a horse is to fly without wings.” She smiled back at him._

Hayden stuck his arms out to the side, breathing in the cool air as it rushed past him.  It really was like flying.  the smooth, rolling pace was lulling, and boy and horse slipped into a state of oneness.  They were not two creatures working together as the loped across the field, they were one completely trusting and moving with the other.

In a word, it was magical.

To this day, Hayden would be able to describe it as nothing less.  The boy who was told he would never ride again and the horse that was labeled “good for nothing” were now galloping together with the precision of champions.  They were unstoppable.

It was in that moment that the two bonded in way that could never be put into words, or any other means of description.  They were simply one.  And there was no pain, no distance, no weapon, which could ever break that bond.

Toothless slowed to a walk, and Hayden leaned forward onto the horse’s neck.  As the boy breathed out a long sigh, Toothless halted at the top of a hill.

Hayden reluctantly slid to the ground and began to undo the horse’s brace.  He barely moved out of the way in time to avoid Toothless as he dropped on the ground for a roll.  Setting the mechanism to the side, Hayden slipped off his shoe and took off the brace on his own foot.

Toothless was sprawled out on his side, and heaved a great contented sigh.  Hayden limped over and sat down beside the horse, leaning back on him as if the stallion were a pillow. 

The two lay in the grass for a while, Toothless lazily nibbling at the grass in front of his nose, and Hayden staring dreamily at the late afternoon sky.  Neither wanted to move.  The entire moment was just to perfect to interrupt, and so neither did.

Hayden finally rolled onto his side and began to stroke the horse’s thick neck.  “Thanks, bud,” he murmured quietly.  “You were right.  Running is way better than that stupid corral.”

Toothless snorted, either in agreement or boredom—Hayden wasn’t sure which.  Oh, how could he leave this beautiful horse behind?  Toothless was the first good thing that had happened to him in years, he couldn’t bear to never see him again.

Maybe the Hofferson’s would be willing to sell Toothless to him!  After all, he was the only who ever paid attention to the horse!  No, that would never work.  Whether they liked Toothless or not, Steven would never let Hayden have a horse.  Besides, there was no way he could afford food and board, not to mention vet bills. 

Hayden groaned.  Why couldn’t just _one thing_ go right for him?  He had accepted his mother was gone.  He knew he was weak and scrawny and would probably be teased for it the rest of his life.  Why couldn’t just this once something go right for him so that he could keep the horse he loved?

It wasn’t fair.  Astrid was rich and had everything she could ever want, but she didn’t appreciate any of it.  Hayden didn’t want to be rich.  He didn’t even care if he didn’t get everything he wanted.  He just wanted Toothless, was that too much to ask? 

He only had until Tuesday left with this horse.  Then it was back to a life of misery.  He had to remind himself to think positively, but the only thing he could come up with was that he’d get to see his cat again.  But even that had its downfall, as Fiddlesticks had a nasty habit of leaving hairballs on Hayden’s pillow.

He glanced at his watch, realizing that time had gotten away from him.  With a sigh, he put on his brace and then Toothless’, and the two set out toward the house walking slowly through the fields.

The horse walked next to him like a big black dog, occasionally pausing to nibble a few bites of grass.  The sun was beginning to set, and the two were still quite a ways from the house.  Hayden smiled and glanced at the horse.  “What do you say we fly back, bud?”

Toothless whinnied his agreement.


	14. The Plan

Tuesday came much too quickly.  Hayden counted down the hours till his father arrived, spending every possible second of it with Toothless.  And finally, those minutes were up.  Hayden’s bags were ready by the door, and Steven’s car slowly pulled up in front of the house. 

Astrid watched from the barn, trying her hardest to appear as though she didn’t care.  She was glad that nuisance was leaving; she wanted her home back.  But in her heart of hearts she would miss him, however much she hated that fact. 

It was all so surreal.  She couldn’t believe he was actually leaving.  She’d dreamed of it for months, and now…now she almost wished it wasn’t happening.  Guilt washed through her stomach as she watched the hired help pack the suitcases into the trunk of the car.  She’d treated Hayden so horribly for the majority of his stay.  Even when she’d tried to be nice, she had remained as bossy as ever.

She should apologize before he left.  This was her last chance.  But the pride within her held her back.  How could she let him leave with the upper hand?  She didn’t want him to get the impression she _liked_ him or anything. 

Oh, who was she kidding?  She did like him.  He had made her experience with a broken leg bearable, and she had learned to somewhat enjoy his company. 

She suddenly caught sight of him swiftly approaching the barn probably to say goodbye to Toothless.  Astrid retreated into Stormfly’s stall, hoping to avoid any conversation with him, but the need to apologize still nagged at her. 

Hayden walked past her stall, apparently not even realizing she was there.  As she had guessed, made straight for the stallion, and remained there for some time.  Astrid could only hear muffled words from down the hall, and finally started to muck her stall out. 

She was caught by surprise when she turned and found Hayden behind her, and she stifled a scream, dropping her pitchfork. 

“Sorry,” he said immediately, bending to pick it up for her.  “I thought you saw me.”

“Clearly not,” she grumbled, mortified that she’d actually screamed.

There was a moment of awkward silence, but neither knew how to break it. 

“Um, Astrid?” Hayden said finally, blushing idiotically. 

“Yeah?” She briefly glanced up at him, the resumed her task of staring at the ground. 

“I, uh, I just want to say how sorry I am for messing up your life over the past couple months.  I intruded on your family…and I just wanted you to know that I didn’t want to.”

Astrid eyes grew wide, and she finally met his gaze.  “You’re sorry?” she gawked, staring at him.  “I’m the one who treated you like garbage!” She could hardly believe she was actually letting herself say this, but she knew that it needed to be said.  “I should be apologizing to you.  I made your life miserable.  I insulted you all the time.  I was insensitive and hurtful and straight up mean.  So…I’m sorry.” The last few words were difficult to say.  It was the first time she’d truly apologized to anyone.

Hayden’s eyes grew rounder than her own.  He secretly pinched his own leg, just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

“In all honesty, I’ve liked having you here,” Astrid admitted nervously.  “You helped me so much with my leg, so thank you for that.  Thanks for making me like pizza.  Thanks for showing me all those cool camera hacks.  I have a lot of other stuff to thank you for, but for now…thanks for everything.”

A shy smile finally tugged at his mouth.  “Thank you for everything too.”

Astrid smiled back.  “Give me your phone,” she told him suddenly.

Confused, he handed it to her.

She proceeded to type in her contact information, and handed it back to him.  “Text me when you get home,” she smiled, blushing a little.  It dawned on her that Hayden was the first boy she’d ever given her number to, without him asking first.  She wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

He nodded, and was about to respond when his father called him.  “Well, uh, see you later I guess.” Hayden muttered softly, offering her a smile as he backed out of the stall.  “Oh, and Astrid?”

“Yes?”

“Could you give Toothless some extra love for me?”

“Sure.” She waved as he walked out of the barn, and as far as she could tell, his pace was quite sad.  She assumed it was because he’d miss the horse, but little did she know that that leaving her, among other things, was a part of the sadness.

She watched, somewhat sadly herself, as Hayden and his father pulled away from the house.  She waved after them, staying at the stall window until she could no longer see their car.  It was weird.  After all this time…she finally had the place to herself again.

And she really didn’t like it. 

She pulled out her phone and called Madeline, realizing suddenly that she couldn’t stand to be all by herself.  Suddenly, she _wanted_ to be with other people, to enjoy their company.  The call went to Maddie’s voicemail, and with a sigh, Astrid ended the call without leaving a message.

She reluctantly finished mucking out the stall, shivering slightly as the cool, late November breeze blew through the barn.  It was hard to believe that Thanksgiving was only three days away.   Toothless whinnied from his stall, banging on the wall.  He wanted Hayden to either give a mint or some attention.  It was most likely the mint.

Astrid propped her pitchfork up against the wall and headed toward the horse.  He stopped banging as he caught sight of her, nickering a friendly hello.

“Hey boy,” she smiled, stroking the horse’s nose.  “I don’t have a mint, sorry.”

Toothless heaved a great sigh, clearly disappointed. 

She slid the stall door open and stepped in, rubbing her hands over his raven black coat.  Toothless nosed her hair, as if he thought it were hay, and he nibbled at it with his lips.

Astrid giggled and pushed his nose away, suddenly catching sight of his bottom lip.  She lifted his head, and studied it discovering a very thin, very light, green line.   

_“…whenever she acquired a new horse, she had a green line tattooed on their bottom lip...”_

Astrid’s eyes widened as Hayden’s words flashed through her mind.  She drew her hands back, staring at the horse in front of her.

No.  This couldn’t possibly be one of his mother’s horses, could it?  These things didn’t happen in real life.  It was too good to be true.  Blinking, Astrid checked for the line again.  Faint as it was, there was no denying its presence. 

The foal!  Toothless was the little foal that had been Hayden’s favorite!  No wonder they had taken such a liking to each other.  No wonder Toothless loved Hayden’s voice so much.  He had spent some of the first weeks of his life listening to it. 

Astrid stood back in utter shock, still trying to wrap her head around the situation.  Hayden.  She had to tell Hayden.  He would be completely thrilled!

She pulled out her phone again, ready to call him and tell him the news, but suddenly realized that she couldn’t.  She had given him her number, but she didn’t have his.  She would have to wait until he texted her later.  A groan escaped her.  She couldn’t wait that long to tell him her amazing discovery!  She wanted him to turn around and come back so she could show him!

But the truth was she couldn’t, so she reluctantly led Toothless out to the pasture to graze.  Her excitement and anticipation didn’t seem to rub off of him.  As soon as he got to the grassy field, he lay down for a nap in the sun.  

Astrid walked back to the house and up to her room, disliking the foreign quiet that surrounded her.  Everything was so quiet.  She kept waiting to hear something clanging from the room next to her, proof of Hayden’s clumsiness.  But he was gone.  She would just have to wait for him to text her.

And wait she did.  She waited a whole week.  She tried contacting him through Instagram, but she knew he rarely ever bothered to even log in.  She thought perhaps he had forgotten to respond because of the holiday, but as the days dragged on, Astrid had enough. 

And idea had been forming in her head for the past few days, and as stupid as it was, she was tired of waiting.  The plan was simple.  Sneak into her mother’s office, steal Hayden’s address, and ride Stormfly there so Astrid could give him what for.  She was incredibly annoyed that he’d forgotten to text her. 

About once a week, Gail had to work out of the house at the local hospital.  Today was one of those specific days, and Astrid took it to her advantage and slowly made her way toward her mother’s office. 

She tried to appear casual, but she knew that everyone else knew she hardly ever went near her Gail’s office, much less in it.  Checking to make sure that the coast was clear, she slipped through the door and closed it behind her.  The truth was, Astrid didn’t even know where to start looking for Hayden’s address, but she figured the large, gray, file cabinet was a decent place to start. 

Astrid opened the top cabinet and found it to be the A-G names.  Moving on to the second drawer, she finally found the Hs.  H was a popular letter, apparently, and she spent a good five minutes looking for Hayden’s file.  She smiled at her success as she pulled it out, copying the address down into her phone.  She put the file back and closed the drawer, just as the office door swung open.

Astrid whirled around, coming face to face with her _mother._

“Astrid?” Gail questioned, an eyebrow raised.  “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Astrid said, trying to hide her sweating palms.  “Stormfly and I were going to go out for a long ride, and I wanted to leave you a note.”

“Well, that’s a first,” Gail chuckled, setting her bag down and removing her lab coat.  “Where do you think you’ll be?”

“I thought I would ride up near the river,” she replied, trying her hardest to make her cover up at least partly true.  She hated lying. 

“Be careful.  I don’t want you getting anywhere near the rapids.”

“I won’t.” No, she definitely wouldn’t get close to those.  In fact, the closest she would even get to the river was about a quarter of a mile. 

“Oh, and take those crazy dogs with you,” Gail went on.  “Hades in particular.  He is so full of energy he nearly knocked me down as I came in.”

“Okay, sure!” Astrid said quickly as she hurried out the door.  She raced up to her room, changed into some breeches, and grabbed the bag she had packed earlier.  There wasn’t much in it, just some water, a few snacks, and a raincoat, but Astrid had learned the hard way not to go on long rides without the items. 

She whistled to Hades and Nova as she ran down the stairs and out to the barn, where she quickly tacked Stormfly up.  She decided in might be best to use her Australian saddle, as she didn’t know what kind of riding she would be doing.  Her posh, expensive jumper saddle just didn’t seem to fit the situation.  At the sight of the saddle, Stormfly grew excited.  She knew that a trail ride was likely to ensue. 

Satisfied with her preparation, Astrid buckled her helmet and walked Stormfly out of the barn, the dogs following nonchalantly.  She mounted and walked around the house, past the pool and spa, past the flower garden, and finally to the edge of their property.  A black, four foot chain-link fence marked where the Hofferson’s land ended. 

Astrid knew that if she turned right of left their property would continue for miles, but for the first time, she encouraged Stormfly toward the fence.  Even with the clunky saddle, Stormfly popped over it easily.  Hades followed just as easily, but Nova couldn’t make the jump and turned around, trotting back to the house. 

Astrid swallowed and looked at the woods in front of her.  Her plan was in action; there was no turning back now.


	15. The Plan in Action

It had been a very, very long time since Astrid had gotten saddle sore.  She rode so much she was practically immune, but the current ride was proving otherwise.  She shifted around in the saddle, trying to find a position that didn’t rub on her legs quite so much.  Nothing was helping. 

Stormfly’s head was low; she was clearly tired.  Hades plodded along next to them, panting heavily.  Astrid sighed, propping her elbow up on the pommel of the saddle and fiddling with the bracelet on her arm.  “Sorry guys,” she mumbled to the animals.  “I thought it was closer than this.”

Stormfly groaned and continued trudging along the path.  Astrid pulled out her phone, opening the maps app.  After putting in Hayden’s address, she realized that it was necessary to mute her phone in order to avoid Siri constantly telling her she was on the incorrect route. 

These woods seemed to go on forever.  And ever.  Astrid hadn’t spotted a single building in hours, but she could occasionally hear muffled sounds from a distant highway.  She looked at the map on the screen, her shoulders sagging as she realized there was still another mile or two to go. 

A shiver ran through her, and she glanced at the temperature on her phone—33 degrees.  At least it wasn’t snowing.  She grabbed a granola bar out of her saddle bag and unwrapped it.  Her nutritionist would kill her for snacking out of boredom, but she honestly couldn’t care less at this point. 

Astrid spent most of the next hour scrolling through her social media pages, using up almost all her mobile data.  She finally glanced up, smiling as she caught sight of a posh looking neighborhood in the distance. 

She urged Stormfly into a slow trot, eager to see more of the houses.  They weren’t nearly as big as her own, but were certainly on the higher end of things.  She glanced at her map again.  This was definitely the right place. 

She walked around the outside of the neighborhood, glancing from her map to the houses.  She noticed a large brick house at the end of a cul-de-sac, with the number “244” just visible on the mailbox.

As Stormfly plodded around the back of the house, Astrid just managed to catch sight of Hayden walking in the back door.  She hated the way her heart skipped a beat.

A tall privacy fence surrounded the house, and had she not been on her horse, Astrid wouldn’t have been able to see over the top.  There was no car in the front, or in the open garage, so she assumed Hayden was home alone. 

She pulled Stormfly to a halt, dismounted, and tied the horse to a tree and told Hades to stay put.  With some difficulty, she managed to climb over the fence and toppled into the yard.  The first thing she noticed was that all the curtains in the house were closed. 

The gray sky caused the house to appear all the more ominous as she approached.  The wooden deck leading to the back door creaked painfully as she stepped on it.  The faded chairs clearly hadn’t been used in years. 

It was odd; the front of the house had been so well kept, while the back was a mess.  Not even the grass was mowed. 

Astrid reached up to knock on the glass door, but before she had the chance, a huge Rottweiler jumped up of the glass in front of her, barking ferociously.  She gasped, jumping back in surprise.  The noise drew Hayden to the door, a look of surprise and shock on his face as he pushed the massive dog out of the way and stepped outside. 

“Astrid?” he asked, pushing the door shut behind him.  “What are you doing here?”

Astrid tried to hide her idiotic smile over seeing him again.  “You didn’t text me,” she started simply, “and I had something really important to tell you.”

Realization dawned on his face, and for the first time, she noticed a large bruise under his right eye.  “I’m so sorry,” he replied.  “I totally forgot.  We had some other stops to make and by the time I got home I basically just fell into bed.”

“Oh,” she said quietly, slightly disappointed by how easily it had slipped his mind.  “What happened to your eye?”

“My eye?” he looked confused.  “What about it?”

“The bruise…” she gestured to the spot on her own face.

Confused, he turned and glanced at his reflection in the window.  “Oh!  That would be from a baseball.  I got hit in the face.”

“Ouch.” Astrid could only wonder how he’d forgotten about an injury like that.  But, he was rather scatterbrained.  She’d picked that up quickly.

The sounds of a car pulling in the driveway interrupted the awkward silence.  “That’s probably my dad,” Hayden said quickly, glancing over his shoulder.  “You better go.  I’m supposed to be doing homework.”

“But I didn’t tell you the important-”

“Go!” he hissed suddenly, all but pushing her down the steps toward the gate in the back of the yard.  “I’ll call you later!” With that he hurried back in the house, stubbing his toe on the door frame.

Astrid huffed indignantly, and would’ve stayed on the property were it not for the huge dog still growling at her through the door.  She slipped through the gate, grumbling under her breath.  She climbed up on Stormfly so she could see over the fence.

Hayden appeared at the door again, opened it to let the dog out, and dumped out the contents of a half broken flower pot over the side of the porch.  Astrid furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.  That didn’t look like homework.  Something wasn’t adding up, and though she had no idea why, Astrid knew the whole situation was wrong.  She needed a closer look.

But first, she had to get rid of the Rottweiler.  He was sniffing at her trail, leading up to the fence.  An idea suddenly came to her.

She grabbed another granola bar, and breaking off tiny pieces, she made a trail leading away from the gate.  Astrid opened it, hiding behind the open door.  The dog slowly came out, walking right past her as the scent of peanut butter oats lured him away.  Smiling, she slipped back inside the gate, motioning for Hades to follow her. 

She crept back up to the door and peaked through the window.  There was just enough space between the curtains to see through.  A huge red-headed man walked past, and she ducked behind the wall.  Her gut was screaming at her to run, but her head said otherwise. 

The man walked up a staircase, and telling Hades to stay, Astrid crept through the back door.  She held her breath, and managed to keep it from squeaking. 

The entire house was dark and uninviting.  She was immediately struck with the distinct smell of men, cologne, and a garbage can.  Dishes were piled in the sink, a wilted plant rested on the kitchen windowsill, and a stack of books lay haphazardly on the countertop.  The refrigerator was covered in notes and pictures, all of which, Astrid noticed, were dated from six years back or earlier.  There was even a grocery list from seven years before, the paper faded and writing smeared, but it still hung on the fridge door. 

Pictures covered the walls, none of which were recent photos.  The oldest Hayden looked in any of them was twelve.  The more Astrid took in the scene, the messier the room seemed. 

Astrid slowly made her way into the living room.  The TV was on, but muted, and there was nothing but a badly flickering lamp to light the room.  Papers and files covered the coffee table, and at least five suit jackets were draped over the back of a mangy looking couch. 

How did Hayden, one of the most meticulous and neat people she’d ever met, live like this?  This wasn’t like him at all. 

She froze suddenly, as incoherent shouting came from above her.  Something was amiss upstairs.  Going against every instinct in her body, Astrid slowly climbed up the stairs.

“I told you to put that away!” A deep voice shouted, along with a sudden thud.

“No, you told me _not_ to,” came Hayden’s soft reply.

Astrid followed the sounds to a bedroom, and not daring to peak around the corner, she opened up her phone camera.  Holding the lens just past the door frame, she could see everything going on in the room without risking being seen.

“Why in the world would I say that?!” Steven shouted at Hayden, who was seated at his desk.  He grabbed a notebook off the desk, causing the boy to jump, and proceeded to tear it in half.  “Now it can go in the trash where it belongs!” He dropped the paper on the floor, scattering it around.

Astrid’s stomach twisted uneasily, and before she knew what she was doing, she had pressed the “record” button on her phone.

“Now pick it up!” The man shouted, pointing at the shreds of paper on the carpet.   Hayden wordlessly obeyed, dropping to his knees.  His hands were visibly shaking, and a few pieces fluttered out of his grasp.

“What do you think you’re doing!  I told you to pick it up!” Steven yelled, delivering a swift kick to Hayden’s side.

Astrid clapped a hand over her mouth to keep back a gasp.

“I’m trying,” Hayden mumbled back, hurrying to finish the job, which only made matters worse.

“Look at me when you talk to me, boy!” Steven grabbed Hayden by the collar of his shirt and yanked him up.  “Give me some respect!  What’s wrong with you!?”

Astrid stared wide-eyed at her phone screen, hardly believing what she saw. 

Hayden didn’t make a sound. 

“Answer me!” the man screamed, slamming the boy into the wall and smacking a hand across his face.  His hands tightened around Hayden’s throat.  “Answer!”

Hayden tried, but his father’s grip was too strong around his neck.  Astrid was ready to run in and do something, when Steven released his hold, Hayden crumpling to the floor and gasping for air. 

“It should have been you, you useless little runt,” Steven growled heartlessly, “and not your mother.  I’d trade your life for hers any day.” Giving Hayden another solid kick in the ribs, Steven stormed out of the room and across the hall.

Astrid moved out of the way just in time to avoid being seen.  She didn’t dare move and she didn’t dare stay.  This was what Hayden was living with?  This cruelty, this _abuse?_ Why hadn’t he said anything?

Astrid could see Steven’s shadow in the other room as he messed with what sounded like a file cabinet.  Help.  She needed help.  Now.

 _Call 911._ She knew what to do, but she couldn’t talk here, or even risk the noise of going somewhere she could.  But she could still text, so opening up her messages, she attached the video she had just taken and sent it to her mother, along with the words “Bring help.  At Hayden’s house.  Hurry.”

She breathed heavily as the little blue bar inched across the screen, showing how much longer till the video sent.  Seconds passed like days.  Finally the line disappeared, and the small “sent” sound accompanied it. 

 _Oh no._ Astrid had assumed that having turned the volume on her phone all the way down, the noise wouldn’t be heard, but she hadn’t thought to press the mute button. 

Steven suddenly appeared in the doorway of his room, glaring furiously at her.  “Who.  Are.  You.” he snarled, his large hands griping the doorway.

Astrid didn’t answer.  She bolted.

She barreled down the stairs, running as fast as she could for the door.  The man grabbed at her ponytail, causing her to stagger and drop her phone.  Terrified, she groped at the door handle, finding it to be locked.  In her panicked frenzy, she fiddled with it desperately, but to no avail.

“Well, well, well,” Steven boomed, placing a hand on the door to keep it closed, “What have we here?” He opened up her phone and looked at the most recent message, a vein popping out on his neck.  Astrid backed away fearfully.

He smashed the phone against the door, reaching behind his back and pulling out a gun.  “So you’re the Hofferson girl?” he asked, cocking the weapon.  “I think I’ve had quite enough of the Hofferson’s meddling in my business.”

He aimed to fire at her, and as his finger slowly moved to cover the trigger, a barking, snarling Hades broke through the nearest window and jumped at Steven.

The gun went off with an ear splitting bang, and the dog fell to the ground in a heap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I haven't updated in forever. And now, when I finally do, I leave you on a cliff hanger! I'm so evil!
> 
> Don't worry, a new chapter is coming soon!


	16. A Pizza Emergency

“Hades!” Astrid screamed, reeling back in horror.  The dog belly-crawled toward her, a trail of blood behind him.  He whimpered and stretched out on the tile floor, panting slightly.  Astrid glanced from the dog to the gun, shocked. 

The man suddenly lunged for her, and Astrid simply wasn’t fast enough to get away.  “Let me go!” She screamed, struggling against him as he dragged her up the stairs.  In her panic, she was unable to recall her years of self defense, and fought to get away uselessly.    

Kicking and screaming, Astrid was pulled up the staircase.  For the first time in her life, she was completely terrified.  Steven pushed her into Hayden’s room, the boy still on the floor. 

“Why don’t you tell her what’s in store for the two of you,” Steven encouraged Hayden with a scowl.  He turned and locked the door behind him as he left, leaving the two alone.

Astrid slowly slid to the floor and sat back against the wall, her shaking legs no longer holding her up.  Her cheek was throbbing, and she could only conclude that she’d hurt it in all the struggling.  Her frightened gaze slowly turned the young man beside her. 

“I told you to leave,” he whispered without any inflection.  The brokenness that showed in his tired eyes was enough to break even Astrid’s cold heart. 

“I didn’t,” she replied simply.  “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

Hayden was quiet for a moment.  He licked his lips slowly, deciding what to say next.  “He wasn’t always like this,” he said finally, curling in on himself a bit more.  “When mom died…he changed.  He was angry all the time.  He wanted her back.  And I guess…I was just a reminder that she wasn’t here anymore.  So he took that anger out on me.  It wasn’t bad—honestly, it wasn’t.  Just some yelling when I did stuff wrong.  But as time went on…I stopped being able to do anything right.  He’d hit me if I talked back.  He was always mad.  I knew what he was doing was wrong, but I didn’t know how to tell anyone.” He trailed off for a moment, visible tears glistening in his eyes.

“You could have told my mom,” Astrid murmured quietly. 

“That’s just it—I couldn’t,” Hayden shook his head sadly.  “After I tried to kill myself, the doctors made me go to see your mom.  My dad knew what was really going on with me, and he made me promise not to tell anyone.”

“So?” Astrid spat out, suddenly angry.  “He’s hurting you; why do you care if he gets in trouble?”

“Because he threatened to kill me.”

Astrid’s eyes widened, her mouth growing slack. 

“He said that if I told a single soul, he’d lock me up and starve me to death, or feed me to Skullcrusher—that’s the dog—or do something else just as awful.  I wanted to tell someone Astrid…really, I did.  I was just too scared.”

Astrid sat and stared, trying to imagine what it would be like to be so terrified of her father that she thought her might kill her.  Her dad would never do anything like that.  He might never be around, but he did do his best to keep her safe.  Hayden didn’t have anyone.  He had no one to trust or confide in, and his father treated him terribly.  The thought that she had treated the boy terribly as well made her sick.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, hanging her head.  “I wish you could have told me.  You don’t deserve to live like this.”

He didn’t quite seem to hear her, but a faint, half-hearted smile tugged at his swollen mouth.  “Everything was perfect when my mother was alive,” he replied softly, his voice cracking with emotion.  “I just want my mom back.” A few tears slipped out and down his cheeks, unwanted of course.  He choked back a sob.  “I don’t want to cry.”

Astrid placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.  “It’s okay, Hayden.  You can cry if you need to.”

He shook his head, wincing.  “No, it hurts.”

Astrid furrowed her brows, confused.  “What hurts?”

“My ribs.  I think they got kicked a little too hard.” He drew in a breath to steady himself, but it caught, and he sucked in a pained gasp. 

“Let me see,” Astrid told him softly, and he lifted his shirt for her.  A small gasp escaped her at the major bruises on his side, standing out obviously against his pale skin.  “That looks broken to me.  You need medical attention.”

He smirked tiredly.  “What’s the point?  I’m so used to pain now…there wouldn’t be anything they could do.”

“But-”

“I want this to be over,” he murmured softly,  closing his eyes and rolling gingerly on his back.  His swollen black eye couldn’t shut all the way without pain, and he eventually decided it was easiest to just stare at the ceiling.  “I want out.  I’m tired of this pain, Astrid.  I’m tired of faking that everything is okay.  I feel like I’m broken and ripped to shreds and bleeding all over the place but no one has the common decency to care.”

He paused, then continued.  “I’ve been fighting back and trying to stay strong because that’s what everyone tells me to do, but they don’t understand that I don’t have any fight left.  I’ve used it all up.  I can’t do this anymore.  I just want to die so it’s over—so I don’t have to live like this anymore.  It’s not that I want to be dead…I just can’t keep living; if you can call this living.” He trailed off finally, staring blankly at the ceiling. 

He _was_ tired; Astrid could see it.  He _was_ worn out.  He just couldn’t keep going.

But she could.  She had a lot of fight left, and for once she was more than ready to be the royal brat she knew she was capable of being.  Steven had messed with the _wrong_ girl, and he was about to pay for it.  No more nice girl, no more prissy rich wimp.  If Steven wanted to be a bully, she was going to be a bully right back.  It was time to get mean.

But for now, she just needed to fight for Hayden—there was no way he could fight for himself.  The problem was that she wasn’t sure how to go about doing that.  Well, what did she have to lose?

“Sit up,” she commanded somewhat sternly, and with some help, he managed to so. 

He rubbed his side with a grimace.  “Why exactly do you-”

She suddenly threw her arms around his neck, cutting him off.  “I care!” she exclaimed, strangely choked up.  “I want you to live and be happy and not be hurt.  And I promise that I will _not_ let that awful man who doesn’t deserve to be called your father hurt you again.”

Hayden said nothing, but the grateful way that he relaxed into her shoulder spoke more thanks than he ever could have put into words. 

The two sat quietly for a moment, until Hayden finally broke it.  “Astrid,” he mumbled, “Can I just sleep for a little?  I’m just so-”

“Of course,” she replied with a smile.  “Don’t worry about anything.  I’m right here.”

He mumbled his thanks, and before long, he was fast asleep beside her, his head on her shoulder.  Astrid was left with a good deal of time to think.  A plan began to form in her head, and she played it over and over again, memorizing it thoroughly. 

Heavy steps suddenly pounded up the staircase, and Astrid’s palms grew sweaty.  The door flew open, and Steven stepped in.  Hayden jerked his head up, painfully scooting away from Astrid.

“It looks like the two of you will be taking a little trip out of the country with me,” he sneered.  “In a suitcase.  I told you not to get anyone involved, Hayden.”

Hayden glanced away.

“Well, since we’re still in the country for now,” Astrid started confidently, though her hands were shaking.  “I would like to take advantage of some food options.”

Steven stared at her somewhat dumbly.

“I want to order a pizza,” she said simply.  “I haven’t eaten in hours.”

Steven continued staring. 

“I’m hungry, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to use the phone.  I’ll pay for the pizza myself of course.”

“So you think I’m stupid?” he asked, an amused smile on his face.  “I wouldn’t let you near a phone, much less make a call.  Stay hungry, princess.  I don’t care.”

“Fine, but you should know I’m used to getting my way, and when I don’t I get very, _very_ upset about it.  I actually decapitated a kitten once because I was so angry.” It was true.  She had destroyed a stuffed animal kitten when she was younger, all because she didn’t get her way.

“Fine, but you show me the number and I’ll answer the door.” He pulled her phone out of his back pocket and handed it to her, and Astrid was very displeased to find that her screen was shattered.  Not that it matter now, of course.

Astrid typed in the number and showed it to Steven, who shook his head and proceeded to lock the windows of the room.  She discreetly pressed the number four and held it down, which had been pre-programmed to call 911.

It wasn’t but two rings before an operator picked up.  “911, where is your emergency?”

“244 Lenox Road,” Astrid replied smoothly, keeping a close eye on the man across the room.  Hayden was staring at her, totally confused.

“I’ve dispatched a police officer to your address,” the woman on the other end.  “What kind of emergency do you have?”

“Yes, I’d like and extra large cheese pizza, half with pineapple and beef.”

There was a brief moment of silence on the other end.  “I’m sorry, but do you realize you’ve called 911?”

“Yes.” Astrid prayed that the woman would catch on quickly.

“Do you actually have an emergency situation, miss?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Could you please tell me…” the operator trailed off, pausing.  “Is there someone around you so that you can’t say anything?”

“Correct, I’d like that for delivery please.” Astrid managed to keep back a smile of relief.

“Are you or anyone else hurt?”

“Yeah, a side of ribs?” Pretty much the worst play on words she’d ever made.

“Someone is hurt in the ribs?”

“Yes.”

“How is their breathing?  I’m dispatching an ambulance now.”

“Fine; how long will that be?”

“Help should arrive in less than fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you, that’s all.  Have a nice day!” Astrid clicked off the phone just as Steven walked over and demanded it back.  She sat down next to Hayden again as the man left the room.

“How could you order a pizza at a time like this?” he hissed, his eyes wide. 

“Just trust me,” she whispered back, her lips set in a determined, expressionless line.  She let him lean back against her shoulder, as he seemed to be in more pain now. 

Try as she might, Astrid couldn’t keep her eyes off the clock.  The minutes passed at an agonizingly slow pace.  Help was coming.  She just had to wait for it to get there. 

After what felt like hours, Astrid finally heard sirens squealing in the distance.  As they grew steadily closer, Hayden glanced at her questioningly.  She gave him a knowing smile. 

The door swung open and Steven stormed in.  “Which one of you is responsible for this?!” he bellowed, glaring at them so coldly he could have made it snow in the Sahara. 

Neither made a sound. 

“Fine,” he growled, yanking Astrid up by her hair.  “We can do things this way.”

“You’re messing with the wrong girl.  My dad will have you arrested for this!” Astrid snarled, waiting for just the right moment to sock him in the face. 

Steven said nothing. 

Blue and red lights flashed outside, indicating that the police had arrived.  Steven picked up the gun and led Astrid toward the front door.  Hades was still on the floor, and the girl swallowed hard.  “Don’t try anything stupid,” the man growled, opening the door and pushing her out onto the front steps.

Astrid felt the barrel of the gun against the back of her head, and her eyes widened. 

“Release the girl, Haddock, and nobody gets hurt!” One of the officers shouted from his place at the edge of the yard. 

“Get off my property, or I blow her brains out!” Steven wrapped an arm around her neck.

Astrid had had enough.  “I told you that you were messing with the wrong girl,” she told him savagely.  “And I meant it.”

She grabbed the hand with the gun and jerked it away from her head, send her elbow backwards and into his gut.  As she twisted around, her other hand came flying toward him, and her fist collided with his nose. 

Steven reeled back and aimed the gun, ready to fire at her.  She fearlessly grabbed the barrel of the handgun and slammed her forearm down on his arms.  She pried the gun loose, but the big man was too strong for her. 

He pushed her against the wall, the gun at her throat.  She gasped for air and tried to get away, to no avail.  This was it.  She was going to die…it wasn't a terrible way to go.  At least she’d die fighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And...cliffhanger number 2. Is Astrid a genius or what! Calling 911 to order a pizza...lol.
> 
> Anyway, I really hate making Steven (or Stoick) the bad guy, but I didn't really have anyone else so...
> 
> If you're enjoying the story, be sure to leave kudos and a comment! Thanks for reading!


	17. Released

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare your hearts guys, you may want a box of tissues on hand...

Suddenly, growling and barking came from nowhere, and Hades leapt onto Steven’s arm, knocking him to the ground.  Steven howled in pain as the dog dragged him down the steps. 

The police ran in, tackling him to the ground.  Astrid watched numbly as they shoved him into a police car and sped away.  An EMT sprinted toward her, and tried to lead her toward the Ambulance. 

“I’m fine, just help Hayden and my dog.” She pulled out of the man’s grasp, trying to go back to the house. 

“Are you sure?” he asked, obviously doubting her. 

She nodded shakily, and he jogged after some other medical staff toward the house.  A medic was wrapping a temporary bandage around Hades’ middle, and finally coming to her senses, Astrid rushed to her dog.

The woman shot her a sorrowful look as she pulled out a stethoscope.  Astrid dropped to her knees beside the pair, her throat tightening at the growing patch of blood. 

“There’s not much more I can do,” the woman shook her head.  “It’s up to him whether he lives or not.”

Astrid’s eyes traced the big dog, watched as he struggled over each ragged breath.  His eyes were dull.  He had saved her life—twice—and it cost him his own.  Tears welled up her eyes.  “Thanks, boy,” she whispered, the tears spilling out.  “You’re a good dog…no.  You’re the best dog in the whole world.  You’re my hero.”

Hades whined, and pushed himself limply toward her.

“I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you,” she cried, her heart slowly but surely breaking in two.  “Tell you what, if you get better, I’ll give you all the peanut butter you want.”

Hades continued trying to inch his way toward her, despite the pain it obviously caused him. 

“What are you doing, boy?” she sniffed, trying to get herself under control.  But suddenly she realized why he was so desperately trying to get to her.  He was still trying to protect her.  He wanted to be as close as he could, so that even in his weakened, injured state, he could still protect her.

She burst into tears again, leaning her head down on his muscular neck.  How could she make him stop hurting himself.  _Release._ She could release him.  Let him do as he liked, even if it was just for the last few moments of his life.  “Release, Hades,” she cried.  “Release.”

Hades lifted his head and licked the side of her face, then slowly lowered his head back to the ground.  He gave one last sigh, and was released from his pain, from working, from life itself. 

Astrid gave a loud sob as she felt Hades breathe his last.  He was so obedient.  He’d even waited to die until he’d been released.  “Release.” She whispered it over and over again, as if telling herself to let go of the tears and sorrow.

Steven.  She hated him.  She’d kill him if she ever got the chance.  Oh, she’d make him pay for this!  She’d wring his neck and rip out…

_Release._

She drew in a breath, tears still falling.  _Release._ Let it go.  She wouldn’t hate him.  Hate wouldn’t hurt him.  It only hurt her, make her bitter, sucked the joy out of life.  No, no hate.

She glanced up at the house, swallowing hard as she saw a stretcher being carried up to the house.  Several more police cars had arrived, and were blocking the way of curios neighbors and reporters.  A sudden cry of “We’re losing him!” sounded from the house, and more EMTs ran inside.  What was happening?  Was Hayden alright?  Was he dying?  Fear lurched in her stomach.

_Release._

She drew in a long, shaky breath.  No fear.  Hayden would be alright.  She just needed to stay out of the way and let the professionals do their job.  Just _release._

Astrid stayed on the ground with her head on her dog, stroking his face.  His body was slowly becoming stiff underneath her, and all warmth was gone.  More tears formed.  Why him?  He was such a good, loyal dog.  Why couldn’t it have been that awful Skullcrusher?  Hades only wanted to protect her!  It wasn’t fair!  He didn’t deserve to die!

_Release._

Let the anger go.  Life wasn’t fair.  Hades had done his job.  He’d protected her.  That was all he ever wanted to do.  She knew there was nothing she could do.  Hades had saved her life, that was that.  She wished she could share peanut butter with him one last time, or play hide and seek with a tennis ball, or go for a run—anything to say thank you. 

She buried her face in Hades’ furry neck, breathing in the sweet smell of his fur.  The soft pelt dried the tears off her face, and she watched as the medics carried Hayden, who was strapped to a stretcher, out to an Ambulance and loaded him into it. 

For the first time, she was suddenly able leave the dog.  She jumped up on wobbly legs and jogged after the EMTs.  “Is he okay?” she begged, trying to steal a glance at her friend.

“We don’t know,” a man answered her.  “He needs to get checked out, and then we’ll know for sure.”

She nodded, swallowing hard. 

“Astrid!”

Astrid turned toward the sound of her mother’s voice, relief coursing through her veins.  She spotted Gail pushing her way through a crowd of people, trying to find her daughter.

“Mom!”  Tears pouring down her face, Astrid rushed into her mother’s open arms. 

“Oh, baby, are you okay?” Gail wrapped Astrid in a hug, running a hand over her daughter’s frizzy hair.

Astrid gave a muffled “Mm-hmm,” before lapsing into sobs again.  “Oh, mom, it was terrible!  It was Steven the whole time!  I tried to get away but he caught me and he was hurting Hayden and Hades…Hades…” she trailed off at Hades, unable to go any further.

“What about Hades?” Gail prodded gently, scanning the area.

Astrid pulled away slightly and gestured to the German Shepherd on the ground, a dark pool of blood beside him.  She couldn’t bare the sight and turned away, bawling.

“Oh, Astrid.” Gail sank to her knees, bringing her daughter to the ground with her.  Astrid curled up in her mother’s arms, weeping hysterically.  “Just let it all out, sweatheart.  Cry as much as you need to.”

 _Release.  Release it.  Let it all out._ “He saved my life twice,” Astrid sobbed, almost choking on her own tears.  “And even while he was dying he still wanted to protect me!”

Gail’s eyes turned toward the still form of the dog, searching for any sign of life.  But Astrid was right; Hades was gone. 

Astrid was slowly starting to calm, drawing in slow shuddering breaths. 

“Let’s take him home,” Gail suggested firmly.  “He deserves a nice burial, don’t you think?”

Astrid nodded and stood up wordlessly.  With the help of a police officer, they placed Hades in the back seat of a car, everything but his head wrapped in a black plastic bag.  Astrid climbed in next to him, running her shaking hands over his head and fiddling with his stiff ears. 

Gail arranged for Stormfly to be picked up, and drove home without a word, eyeing the rainclouds that moved ominously in the distance.  As they pulled into their driveway, Nova jumped up off the porch and ran to meet them.

She wagged her stump of a tail furiously, dancing in place as she waited for Astrid. 

The girl opened the back door and climbed out, ignoring the dog.  Smelling Hades in the car, Nova put her paws up on the back seat and nosed the German Shepherd’s face.  Confused, she barked once and pawed at him, wondering why her friend didn’t respond. 

As a few of the farm hands lifted Hades out of the car, Nova seemed to understand.  She followed them with the head hanging low, wining softly.

“Where do you want to bury him?” Gail asked her daughter gently, placing an arm around her shoulder.   

“Under the dogwood tree,” Astrid replied quickly.  “It was his favorite spot.  And…I want to do it.  By myself.”

“Oh…alright.” Gail instructed that the dog be set down near the tree, and offering her daughter one last hug, retired to the house.

Astrid walked dejectedly to the barn and found a shovel.  She felt strangely tired, and wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed.  A few tears stubbornly ran down her cheeks as she noticed Nova stretched out miserably on the ground next to Hades body. 

She selected the perfect spot under the tree, and began to dig.  The constant sound of moving dirt was lulling, and numbed her emotions down to nothing but a static, melancholy calm. 

Rain began to fall as the hole grew larger, until finally Astrid was shoveling mud instead of dirt.  Her wet hair was plastered to her cheeks, and mud was plastered to her jean riding pants.  Her hands were cold and blistered, her back and shoulders were aching, and rain continued to mix with the tears on her cheeks.

Nova never moved once from her place next to Hades.  Her feathery fur was soaked through, and the way she blinked to keep the rain out of her eyes looked quite similar to crying.  Her chin was plopped miserably on the ground, and every so often she would lift it to lick the excess water off the other dog’s face.

Astrid was finally satisfied with the hole, and sliding in mud, she scooted the dog into it.  She fell to her knees in the pit beside him, mud squelching up around her legs. 

“Thanks boy,” she whispered to him as she brushed mud and rain off his face.  “I wish I could give you a medal of honor.” She stroked his face again, her bracelet suddenly catching her eye.

It had been a gift from her Aunt; a good luck charm.  Astrid’s aunt had told her that by wearing it, she’d be safer and of course, have better luck.

Without hesitation, Astrid slipped it over her wrist.  “You were my good luck charm,” she told the dog with a sad smile.  “So you deserve this.” She laid the bracelet down beside the dog and stood up, fighting back the tears that desperately wanted to flow. 

Picking up the shovel again, she began to cover the dog’s body, Nova watching sorrowfully from the side.  Slowly Hades vanished under the mud, and Astrid pushed aside the sadness and continued. 

When the hole was completely filled in, Nova belly-crawled on top of it, whimpering.  Astrid sat down beside her, mixing her cold fingers with Nova’s warm fur. 

It dawned on her that Nova would miss Hades even more than she would.  Astrid had ignored him for most of the time, but he was Nova’s playmate and friend.  Astrid would have to try to take his place.  She stood suddenly and ran up to the house, and just as quickly returned with two spoons and a jar of peanut butter.

Astrid opened it and spooned out some for herself, then some for Nova.  Sorrowful as she was, Nova wouldn’t refuse peanut butter.  The two sat in silence, licking peanut butter off of spoons until the jar was empty and Nova had licked it clean.

Astrid crammed her cold hands into her pockets, finding her pocket knife in one of them.  She pulled it out and opened and closed each of the knifes, absentmindedly tracing the corkscrew.  As she fiddled with the knife, an idea slowly came to her.

She turned around and studied the trunk of the tree, finally walking, on her knees, over to it.

Opening up the regular knife, she stabbed it into the trunk and began to carve.  It was a slow, tedious process, and Astrid poked herself on more than one occasion.  The rain and mud on her hands made the knife difficult to hold.  But finally, after at least an hour’s work, she stood back and read what she had carved: _HERE LIES HADES—BODYGAURD AND BEST FRIEND, LOYAL UNTO DEATH.  HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS GIRL, AND NOW HE IS RELEASED._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who loved Hades? I sure did. He will be missed greatly.


	18. Not Today

Astrid restlessly twirled a lock of hair around her finger, staring outside at the rainy Thursday morning.  She was restless for several reasons.  Firstly, she hadn’t been outside in nearly a week due to the rain, and second, she hadn’t heard one word about how Hayden was doing.  Since she wasn’t immediate family, she couldn’t get any information over the phone, and her mother refused to let her visit him. 

Gail’s reasons for doing so made sense—they didn’t even know whether he could have visitors or not—but Astrid opposed nonetheless. 

The two weeks of Christmas break had started yesterday, but Astrid was hardly excited.  She wanted so desperately to know if Hayden was all right. 

Gail worked at the hospital on Thursday, and had promised Astrid that she would call with any news she could find.  But the morning went on and on, and she did not call—yet another reason Astrid was restless.  She picked up her phone to check for texts, even though the sound was on. 

Bored and desperate, she opened up her email, wondering if her mother might just have possibly sent information that way.  Astrid grew slightly excited as she saw three unread messages, but her face fell as she realized that it was just school notifications.

She sighed and clicked her phone off, her gaze returning to the window.  Her stomach growled, reminding her that it was lunch time.  She stood up off her window seat and made her way downstairs.  The house seemed strangely empty. 

Astrid walked into the kitchen, wondering where everyone was.  The kitchen was just as empty, until Jennie walked out from the side room.  The cook sucked in a gasp as she caught sight of Astrid standing in the doorway.

“Oh, Miss Astrid!  I was just leaving.” Jennie did appear to be on her way out.  Her coat was draped over her arm, and her bag was slung over her shoulder.

“Leaving?  Why?” Astrid glanced around the empty kitchen, surprised to find all the appliances turned off. 

“It’s Thursday.  Everyone has Thursday afternoons off.”

Astrid let out a soft “oh.” The thought crossed her mind to force Jennie to stay and make her lunch, but she decided against it.  She could make herself lunch.  Granted, it wouldn’t be fancy, but she wouldn’t starve.  “Well, have a nice day.”

Jennie smiled and walked out, leaving Astrid even more bored than she was to begin with.  She had no one to talk to, nothing interesting to do—she couldn’t even ride because of the rain. 

She could invite Madeline over!  They would have the house to themselves and…and Madeline was out of town.  Astrid huffed as she remembered.  The day simply couldn’t stop getting more boring. 

Nova’s barking suddenly erupted from the living room, and Astrid walked around the corner just as the doorbell rang.  Curious, she sprinted over to it and peaked out the window.  The mailman stood outside, holding a package and a few letters.  All of it would fit in the mailbox, so it seemed odd that he would bring it to the door. 

Astrid opened the front door, pushing Nova away with her foot.  “Hi,” she greeted, struggling to keep the dog away.

“Sorry to bother you,” the man said as he passed her the items.  “Your mailbox is leaking, so I brought these to the door.”

“No problem,” Astrid replied, trying out a smile.  This being nice to people business wasn’t all that bad.

The man nodded and ran back to his vehicle, Nova continuing to bark.

“Oh, be quiet,” Astrid growled at the dog.  The package was addressed to Gail, so Astrid walked it down to her mother’s office while she flipped through the other letters.  It was mostly Christmas cards, a few bills…and one from the DMV.

It was addressed to her!  Oh, how she had waited for this!  She all but dropped the package and other letters to the ground as she tore open the letter.  She could hardly contain herself as she pulled the contents out and frantically opened them.

Out slid a shiny, new, driver’s license.

“Yes!” Astrid pumped her fist in the air and jumped around.  This was her key to freedom.  She finally had it after seven months of waiting.  She stared at the little card, gasping for breath.  “Hello, beautiful.”

Knowing exactly how she was going to spend the rest of the afternoon, she twirled down the hallway and raced up the stairs.  She skated down the wooden hall in her stocking feet and skidded to halt just in time to enter her bedroom.  She pulled on some leg warmers and boots, fixed her makeup and grabbed her purse. 

Smiling to herself, she headed for the garage.  She hit the button to open the door, and finally pulled out into the driveway.  It was pouring rain, and as much as Astrid disliked driving in the rain, she was not going to let that stop her from enjoying her new freedom. 

She should totally take a selfie.  Grinning, she reached for her bag, which she had set on the passenger’s seat.  As she lifted it, she suddenly noticed a jacket.  underneath it.  The navy color was unfamiliar, and she highly doubted that she would leave her jacket in a car she never drove.  She picked it up and looked it over, finding a green paint stain on one of the pockets.  This definitely wasn’t her jacket.

Who else had been in her car?  Had someone tried to steal it?  She glanced at the tag, wondering if the owner had perhaps initialed it.  Of course, they hadn’t.  She glanced at the stain again, and the pieces suddenly fit together.

This was Hayden’s jacket!  She had let him use her car when she told him to pick up pizza!  He must have forgotten his jacket when he got out. 

Astrid fingered the coat, wondering why it intrigued her so much.  She smiled as she got a whiff of the jacket; it definitely smelled like Hayden.  She loved his leathery cologne. 

Realizing she had just admitted to herself that she liked Hayden’s cologne, she groaned aloud.  When had she become such a sappy person?

She was about to set the jacket aside when she felt something in the pocket.  Her curiosity getting the better of her, she pulled the object out.  Her eyes widened.

It was syringe, still full of whatever liquid it contained.  She turned it over in her hand, recognizing it to be a form of Euthanasia.  What is the world was it doing here?

The date on the syringe was at least three months old.  It had clearly never been opened, but that didn’t change the fact that it was still there. 

Hayden had at some point planned on killing himself. 

Whether that same day or another point, he had a deadly drug in his pocket ready to be used at any time.  How had he even gotten it?  Gail had all of his things inspected to avoid this exact type of event. 

Astrid leaned back in her seat heavily, suddenly feeling dizzy.  All those times she had been mean to him, insulted him, he had the chance to take his own life.

Her mother had warned her that her attitude toward him could turn into a suicide attempt, but she had assumed Gail was exaggerating.  But no, he really had the opportunity.  Every single day he’d been with them, there had been a chance for him to use this. 

She turned the injection over in her hand again, and for the first time noticed two words written in black ink on the cap of the needle— _Not today._ That was all it said.  Not today?  She could only assume that it meant Hayden had postponed his attempts at suicide, but why would he write it on the syringe?

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a folded paper in the coat pocket.  She knew it wasn’t any of her business, but she pulled it out anyway, and realized it was her business.  Her name was written on the paper, in cursive that was so pretty she almost thought it was done with a computer. 

She unfolded the paper, and began to read the message inside. 

_Dear Astrid, (Note: if you are not Astrid, please stop reading.)_

_I don’t know if you will ever actually read this letter, but I hope that you do.  I have a few things that have been bugging me, but I just didn’t have the guts to tell you in person._

_I assume you found the syringe in my jacket pocket as well as this letter.  In case you hadn’t already figured it out, the injection is to be used to take a life.  And yes, I planned on using it.  That syringe has sat in the car ever since you sent me to pick up a pizza, and despite what you might think, I purposely left my jacket here.  You see, while we were on our way home from the hospital, I was planning to kill myself the first chance I got.  When we got home, I didn’t have the chance before you sent me to get the pizza.  I planned on giving myself the injection while I was driving in the hopes that I would crash and no one would know the difference.  The only thing that kept me from doing it was that I knew you would be thoroughly ticked if I wrecked your car, and I didn’t want to do that to you when you were already having such a miserable day._

_So I came home, thinking I’d do it after I got  you the pizza and your movie.  But as I was getting out of the car, I didn’t have enough hands for everything.  So I left my jacket here, thinking I’d come back for it later, which I did.  But as I prepared to take my life, I got started thinking about how much fun I’d had with you during the evening.  I honestly didn’t want to die.  So I left the jacket again and went to bed._

_The next day I was sure I’d follow through with my plan, but after a talk I had with your mom and then meeting Toothless, I waited another day._

_Every day for two months I came back to the car and debated whether I was actually going to kill myself.  And every day for two months I decided not to.  Sometimes I waited because I didn’t want to die.  Other times it was because I couldn’t bear to leave Toothless.  Once I waited because I figured you wouldn’t like having someone die in your car.  But I want you to know that the majority of times it was because I just didn’t want to leave you._

_(Note: for Astrid’s eyes ONLY!) I know that it’s not mutual, but I grew to love you.  And I don’t just mean romantically.  I fell in love with your smile and laugh and stubbornness.  You are the first person to make me smile in years.  It made me feel so good; I just wanted it to last forever.  So finally, I just stopped coming back to the car altogether.  That month that I didn’t come back was the best month of my life so far.  I felt so free.  I was happy._

_Then your mom told me I was going home today.  For reasons I’d rather not put on paper, home is a particularly foreboding place.  I just didn’t want to go back there, so I came back to the car.  You have no idea how much I struggled with the idea of suicide today.  I wanted out.  I wanted to be done._

_But as I thought about how wonderful the last three months had been, I knew that I couldn’t do it.  No matter what was going to happen.  So I wrote on the syringe the words I had been saying to myself every day for the past three months: not today._

_Now I’m writing this to you, because I want to thank you for everything you did.  You might not realize it, but there is no way I would be alive today if not for you.  If you hadn’t broken your leg and had me care for Stormfly, if you hadn’t made me go on all those photo shoots, if you hadn’t been such a good friend, I can guarantee that I would have killed myself._

_You gave me the strength to say “not today.” You gave me a want to keep living.  You helped me see from a new angle, and focus on a new subject.  (I’m sorry, I did not mean to get photographer on you.  I know how you hate that.) So thank you, Astrid.  For everything.  I doubt I could ever make it up to you, but if you think of anything, let me know._

_Sincerely,_

_Hayden Haddock_

_P.S.  I’ve been meaning to tell this for a while too, but I just didn’t fit in with the rest of the letter.  Stormfly would make an amazing dressage horse.  She’s got great form, and the judges really love Arabians.  –Hayden (Or toothpick, whatever works for you.  XD)_

As Astrid finished the letter, she realized that she was teary eyed.  “Oh, Hayden,” she whispered, wiping her eyes.  “If only you knew what you did for me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not crying, you're crying.


	19. Just a Friend

Astrid flew down the highway at 75 miles an hour, praying that there were no cops along the side of the road.  She was already ten miles above the speed limit, and she was still accelerating.  Her exit finally came into view, and she slowed making sure to put her turn signal on as she changed lanes.  There was no way on earth she would let herself loose her license the day she got it. 

Her wind-shield wipers were squealing at full speed in the pummeling rain.  She pulled up to a stop light, straining her eyes to look for other cars.  Not that she planned on running the light, of course. 

The light changed to green, and Astrid drove through the intersection, scanning the area for the hospital sign.  She had to see Hayden.  She just had to. 

“Your destination is on the right,” her phone announced.

“No it’s not!” Astrid grumbled, craning her neck in the attempts to spot any sign of the hospital.  The rain let up, suddenly revealing the building.  “Oh.  It is.”

She sighed and pulled into the parking lot.  Every spot even remotely close to the entrance was in use, so she had to settle for one in the very back.  Even with the use of an umbrella, she was still dripping by the time she ran to the entrance. 

She stepped through the sliding doors into an empty lobby, with one receptionist sitting at a computer.  Her burgundy glasses were perched on her nose, and the sleeves her grey cardigan covered most of her hands as she typed.  Her chocolate hair, which had obviously been styled down, was pulled up into what Astrid had to admit was an adorable sloppy bun.  The petite woman looked nice enough, so Astrid approached her.

The young woman looked up.  “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, actually.  I’d like to visit a friend, but I don’t know what room he’s in.”

“Okay, what’s his name?” The receptionist seemed to be pulling up something new on her computer.

“Hayden Haddock.  H-A-Y-D-E-N and Haddock…is spelled like the fish.”

The woman smiled.  “He’s in room 304.  There’s a note here that says visitors must be immediate family, so you’ll need to check in at the desk on that floor.”

Astrid breathed a sigh of relief.  This was going much better than she thought it would.  “Thanks!  Have a nice day!” She waved to the woman as she headed for an elevator. 

Her wet boots squeaked on the tile floor, echoing through the empty halls.  Apparently she was the only visitor crazy enough to take on the weather.  She walked up the elevator door and pressed the up button, and as the doors slid open, she stepped in.  A large mirror in the opposite the door revealed that her hair and makeup were a mess due to the rain.  She did her best to fix it before the bell rang to let her know that she had reached the 3rd floor.

She turned away from the mirror and left the elevator, scanning the hallway for a desk.  She spotted one just around the corner, and an African American women sitting at a computer quickly noticed her.

“Hi,” Astrid started, walking over.  “I’d like to visit Hayden Haddock.  He’s in room 304.  The receptionist said I needed to check in with you.”

The woman smiled and turned, revealing her name tag.  _Debbie._ “Are you immediate family?”

Astrid drew in a long breath, deciding not to lie.  “No…I’m just…I’m just a friend.”

Debbie’s smile faded, but her expression remained soft.  “Well, I wish I could let you in to see him, but the doctors restricted all non-family visitors.”

Astrid wasn’t going to give up that easily.  “Please, just for a minute.  I just want to talk with him and then I’ll leave.”

“Oh, honey, you won’t be talking with him.” Debbie’s face grew graver than it already was.

“Why?”

“He’s been unresponsive for nearly a week.  He woke up briefly after they took him out of the ambulance, but after that he just slipped out of it and won’t respond to anything.”

Astrid’s shoulders slumped.  “Oh.  Well, have a nice day.” She turned to leave, realizing that she wouldn’t be getting anywhere.

“Wait!  Hold on just a second!” Debbie called after her.  “Are you his Girlfriend?”

Astrid turned, vehemently shaking her head no.  She slowly stopped as she realized she probably just lost her one and only chance to see Hayden.

“Just a friend?”

“Yeah.”

Debbie smiled.  “I’m not supposed to let any significant other in either.  Something about emotional stress…anyway, I think I might just be able to get you in.”

Beaming, Astrid walked back up to the desk. 

“None of his family members have come to visit him yet, so they might be willing to make an exception.” With a smile Debbie picked up the phone, and dialed what Astrid assumed was one of the doctors. 

“Yes?” A voice on the other end said over the speaker phone.

“Dr.  Harris, I have a young lady here would like to see Hayden Haddock.  Is that possible?”

There was silence for a moment.  “She’s not family?”

“No, sir.  Just a friend.”

Again, there was a pause.  “Go ahead and let her in to see him.  He could use a friend about now.”

Astrid was too happy about the result to hear anymore of the conversation.  She thanked Debbie happily as the woman pointed her down the hall. 

She quickly walked to the room with a closed door, studying the name posted there for a minute.  She was definitely in the right place.  Slowly pushing the door open, she peaked in.

The first thing she noticed were the closed blinds.  The room was fairly dark.  As she took a few more steps in, she caught sight of the bed, and finally Hayden.

He looked particularly dead.

If it wasn’t for the monotonous beeping of the monitors and steady rise and fall of his chest, Astrid would have been a little worried.  There was an oxygen tube in his nose, every other tube possible hooked up to his hands, and cords of all forms stuck to his chest. 

Astrid quietly pushed the chair in the corner over to his bedside, easing herself slowly into it.  For some reason, it seemed difficult to say anything.  None of the words she’d rehearsed in her mind seemed to fit.

She sucked in a deep breath, then let it out.  “Hey, toothpick.”

The only reply was the beeping of the machines. 

“I just couldn’t wait anymore to come see you,” Astrid went on, gently setting her bag down on the floor.  “Nobody would tell us anything, so I came to find out for myself.  Oh, and I finally got my license today, so if they let me, I’ll come visit you every day.”

This conversation was pathetic.  She needed to say what she’d come to tell him.  “I got your letter.”

Hayden was staring at the ceiling now, but Astrid knew he wasn’t listening.  “I cried when I read it.  You should be proud of yourself.  Not many people can make me cry.”

For just a moment, she could have sworn she saw a smirk tug at his thin lips.  “I thought that maybe I’d write you a letter in return, but I couldn’t wait that long.  And I think that they only thing I can really say in response is that I’m sorry.”

She was suddenly choked up with emotion.  Staring at her friend in a hospital bed seriously tugged on her newly found heart-strings.  “I’m sorry for all the awful things I said to you, I’m sorry for treating you like my personal slave, I’m sorry for not being the friend you were to me.  I don’t think you understand how much you made me change.  I was an awful person and I still pretty much am, but without you…I’d still be a spoiled selfish brat.

“It hurt me to know that you struggled every day for two months with whether you wanted to kill yourself or not, but I can’t tell you how glad I am that you didn’t.

“I just wish that you could have told me, knowing I would be kind enough to care.  I wish I could have somehow helped you.  I’m sorry for not being there.  I expected you to be there for me, but never bothered to return the favor.” Astrid stopped, brushing a few tears out of her eyes.  She had been so heartless.

“And…I want to thank you…for showing me how to be kinder, and happier, and just a better person.  Thank you, Hayden.  Thanks for being you.  I don’t care what your dad thinks, and you shouldn’t either.  You are my favorite person on the whole earth, so you have to get better!”

More unwanted tears came pouring down her face as she imagined having to bury Hayden the way she had Hades.  She covered his cold, limp hand with her own.  “You just have to get better, you got that?  No excuses!  Besides you hate hospitals, and the sooner you get better, the sooner you can get out of…”

She trailed off, suddenly thinking about the sentence leaving her mouth.  “you hate hospitals,” she whispered, pieces starting to fit together in her mind.  “You hate hospitals!”

She stood, grabbing her bag and pushing the chair into the corner again.  “I’ll be right back!” she called over her shoulder as she rushed out of the room.

In her hurry, she just managed to catch a glimpse of Debbie’s clearly confused face.  Astrid skidded to a halt in front of the elevator and repeatedly smashed the button in.  She bounced up and down on her heels like an impatient little child, but the door did not open.

She threw up her hands in exasperation and dashed for the staircase at the end of the hall.  Luckily for her, there was no one behind the door as she pushed it open.  She ran as quickly as she could up the stairs, stopping only briefly in front of the fifth floor door.  She walked as quickly as she could, trying to stay quiet.  Her mother’s office was at the other end of the building, but Astrid was currently in the maternity ward. 

She wanted to run, but she knew that all the noise could wake sleeping babies and mothers.  She settled for walking as quickly as she could.  She finally made it to her mother’s office, and she pushed open the door, clearly surprising Gail.

“Astrid?” Gail’s brows were close as she stared at her daughter.  “What are you doing here?”

“Long story short I got my license in the mail and I came to visit Hayden,” Astrid blurted out, dropping her purse.  “But while I was talking to him I realized why he’s doing so awful.”

Gail seemed interested.  “Go on.”

“Way back when he got the flu, he told me that he hated hospitals-”

“Well, dear, no one likes them.”

“That’s what I said, but I just realized why he hates them so much.  The last few times he was in a hospital, his mom was killed and his sister was taken away and his dad started treating him like crap.” Astrid slowly eased herself down in an extra chair, finally catching her breath. 

“And?” Gail encouraged, taking a sip of her coffee.

“And?  He isn’t responsive because he doesn’t want to be!  He doesn’t want to start the process over!  He told me he wants it all to be over!  I mean, who in their right mind would want to get thrown back into the same awful story?” Astrid took a deep breath to keep herself from getting overly passionate.   

“That’s just it, dear, Hayden’s not in his right mind.” Gail offered a sympathetic look.

Astrid forgot all about not getting overly passionate.  “Not in his right mind?!  Who would be after what he’s been through?!  His dad was beating him!  What do you expect!?”

“Don’t you raise your voice to me, young lady!” Gail shot back, and with one look quickly silenced her daughter.  “If you have a point to make, make it respectfully!”

Astrid huffed.  “I’m sorry, but you weren’t there, mom.  Steven was horrible to him.  He told Hayden that his mom should have lived instead of him.  He said that he wished…” Astrid slowly trailed off, her jumbled thoughts slowly piecing together.  “Hayden’s not crazy.”

“Pardon?”

“Hayden isn’t crazy,” Astrid repeated.  “Steven is.  Everyone thought Hayden was the one who went nuts when his mom died, but it was really Steven.  Hayden just got stuck in the mess.”

“What makes you say that?” Gail was now clearly interested.

“When I was in their house, there were all these old pictures of him and his wife, and grocery lists from five years ago posted on the fridge and now that I think of it, there was still a woman’s coat hanging on the coat rack.  Steven is completely stuck in the past, and Hayden is the only reminder that things have changed.  He was taking all his anger out on Hayden.”

Gail sucked in a deep breath.  “Astrid, what you are saying does make sense…but how would this change anything?”

“Hayden isn’t going to get better if he stays here.  I know him, mom.  He’s shutting everyone out because he’s convinced himself that the whole awful story is just going to start over.  He can’t stay in the hospital.”

Gail shook her head.  “You might be right, but where else can he go?”

“With us!” Astrid exclaimed, her eyes dancing with excitement.  “He can come to our house!”

“He still needs medical attention…”

“So?  We have money, we could pay for all that!  Please mom, I know he’ll only get worse if he stays here.” Astrid physically bit her lip to keep from begging further.

Gail glanced slowly from her desk to Astrid, and finally gave a sigh.  “Wait here,” she said, standing and walking out of the office. 

Astrid sat watching the clock as hours ticked by, waiting rather impatiently for her mother’s return.  Finally the door opened, and Gail stepped in.

“I talked to the doctors,” she began.  “And we are all in agreement.  It’s best if you go home now, sweetheart.”

Astrid realized that the answer was no, and slowly stood to leave. 

“Now, I’ve given everyone the afternoon off, so I’ll need you to clean up the blue room for me.”

“What?” Astrid turned back, confused.

“Well, where do you think we’re going to put Hayden when he gets to our house?”

Her eyes lit up, and staying only long enough to excitedly hug her mother, she dashed out the door for home.


	20. Oh, Christmas Tree!

The snoring was seriously annoying.  Hayden was getting tired of trying to tune it out, and he was beginning to realize that he’d have to wake up and make it stop.  He shifted, attempting to find a position that made the noise quieter.  It wasn’t working.

He slowly pried his eyes open, and blinked at how bright the room was.  His tired eyes scanned the blue walls, confused by how familiarly strange they were.  The bed was strangely familiar too.  He liked the way he sank into it, and how the thick covers seemed to eat him whole.

The snoring continued, and he gingerly rolled over to see what the source was.  The irritating noise was coming from…Nova?  What was Astrid’s dog doing in a hospital, and on the bed next to him?

It was then that he realized he wasn’t in a hospital, he was in his old room at the Hofferson’s.  A quiet sigh escaped him.   

Footsteps creaked in the hallway, disturbing the dog just enough to make her stop.  The door to his room eased open, and Astrid peaked in.

“Hayden!” A smile lit up her face, and just seeing her was enough to light up his world.  She rushed over to his bed and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him as gently as she could.  “How are you?”

He thought for a moment.  “I’ve been better,” he replied, slowly realizing how sore and weak he was.  “What am I doing here?”

An amused smile tugged at Astrid’s mouth.  “I knew how much you hated hospitals, so I convinced my mom to let you come here.”

Hayden suddenly wished he could kiss her; no one had given him that much thought in years.  But he pushed the ridiculous notion to the back of his mind and smiled his thanks like a normal person, too tired to give a verbal response. 

“Well,” Astrid went on, pushing a chair up beside the bed and sinking into it.  “I should probably catch you up on everything.  Christmas is only a week away.”

“One week?” Hayden managed to speak in his surprise.

“Yeah, you’ve been out of it for almost a week and a half.  Your dad…do you want to hear about your dad?” Her expression told him she would spare the details, so he nodded.  “He’s being held at a Correctional Facility for now, but after he sees a psychologist, he might get transferred to a Behavioral Health Center.  He admitted that he hurt you, and so now you don’t have to see him ever again if you don’t want to.”

A weight was suddenly lifted from his shoulders, and he closed his eyes for a moment.  He was finally safe.  His dad was never going to hurt him again. 

“Anyway, you’re going to be staying with us for a while,” Astrid went on.  “At least until you have somewhere else to go.  But honestly, I like having you here, so don’t get any ideas about leaving soon.”

He smirked.  Leave it to Astrid to make sure things happened her way. 

Astrid suddenly jumped out of her chair, making him jump.  “I forgot, I’m supposed to tell the nurses as soon as you’re awake!” She rushed out of the room, Nova giving a groan as she stretched lazily.

Astrid ran down the staircase to where one of the nurses was sitting in the dining room.  He was working on something on his laptop.

“Chris, he’s up,” she said, attempting to look like she wasn’t ready to spin around with glee. 

“Oh, awesome!” Chris didn’t hesitate to stand up and snap the laptop shut, and headed for the staircase.  “Let Angela know too, will you?”

Astrid nodded and left to find the no-nonsense woman, whom she had to admit was definitely not as fun as Chris.  When Angela had made her stay out of Hayden’s room, Chris had an X-box marathon with her, and despite the fact that he won pretty much every time, Astrid had a blast.

Astrid was surprised to discover that Angela was nowhere to be found.  She walked down the hall to her mother’s office to see if Gail had seen the nurse.  Without bothering to knock, Astrid opened the closed door, and realized her problem was solved. 

“If he doesn’t wake up soon, he’s going to need to be transported back to a hospital,” Angela told Gail firmly, her strawberry blonde ponytail bobbing as she shook her head. 

“He’s awake.” Astrid said smartly from the doorway, enjoying the opportunity to destroy Angela’s pessimism. 

“Oh.  Well.  Excuse me.” Angela stood curtly and walked out the door, giving Astrid a quick glance of annoyance. 

Gail met her daughter’s gaze and attempted to keep back a laugh.  “Astrid,” she began, trying to be serious, “In the future, try not to interrupt.”

“Yes, mom,” Astrid glanced away, knowing how much her mother disliked interruptions.

“However, I cannot thank you enough for ending that dreadfully boring conversation.” They both laughed, and resumed their business. 

It wasn’t long before Hayden was up and about, and the hospital staff and equipment went back to where it belonged.  No one was sad to see Angela go. 

The Hofferson house had not been decorated for Christmas yet, due to the business of having Hayden with them.  A few days before the holiday, everyone suddenly realized that no decorating attempts had been made, and they burst into action. 

Astrid and Hayden deciding to help by putting ornaments on the massive tree, and Astrid discovered just how many ornaments they had collected over the years. 

“The red and gold ones always go on the tree,” she called to Hayden, who was standing on top of the stepladder to decorate the top half of the tree.  “But don’t use the music notes.”

“What about this one?” He asked, holding up a broken one.  “I can hid the break in the branches if you-” The ornament slipped out of his fingers and crashed on the floor below.  “Or not.”

“At least I was going to tell you not to use it,” Astrid told him, quickly sweeping up the pieces before the housekeeper had the chance to see it.  “Do you need another box yet?”

“I could use some more red sparkly ones,” He called back, “I think I just broke the last one.”

“Red and sparkly…” Astrid dug through the boxes, finally selecting one to pass to him.  “Here,” she stood on her tip toes and reach up the give him the box.  She gasped as she lost her balanced and felt right into the tree, send it crashing to the floor.

Astrid scrambled to her feet, her hands clapped over her mouth. 

“Bravo,” Hayden muttered sarcastically from his place on the ladder, staring at the tree. 

“Oh, shut up,” Astrid groaned, preparing to push the tree back upright.  Standing on the couch she was able to push it up, only to have it fall over it the opposite direction. 

Hayden couldn’t manage a snarky remark due to his laughter.  He was laughing so hard he climbed off the ladder, afraid he might fall. 

“Stop laughing and just help me already,” Astrid growled, fumbling with the branches. 

Hayden walked over and tried to help her push the tree upright, but it was so tall that it simply bent down to touch the floor over their heads. 

“Okay, you hold it here, I have an idea.” Astrid ran over to the couch and pushed it over to the tree, attempting to stand on it to gain some height. 

“Oh, Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree,” Hayden began singing, solely to entertain himself, as he stood supporting the tree.  “How floppy are your branches!”

“Seriously?  You have to do that right now?” Astrid tried to wiggle her way under the tree while on the couch.

“Hayden ignored her and went on.  “Oh, Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree, how heavy are your branches.”

Astrid groaned and slipped on the couch, causing fake pine boughs to shake all over the furniture. 

“Your boughs are shaking on the couch, your weight is causing me to slouch!” Hayden shifted the weight of the tree, his arms growing numb from holding them up so long.  “Oh, Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree, how heavy are your branches.”

“Okay, fine, put the tree down.  We have to find some other way to stand it up.  At this rate we won’t even get it up by Christmas.”

As Astrid searched for something to use, Hayden sat on the couch and continued singing.  “I am dreaming today, of a tree I love, even more than I usually do.  And although I know, it’s a long way up, I promise yoooouuuuuu…” He watched in amusement as Astrid rolled her eyes.  “It’ll be up by Christmas, you can count on meeeeeee…”

Astrid paused and looked up at him.  “Don’t.  Just don’t.”

He shrugged and changed his song.  “Dashing through the snow, on very rusty skies, ore’ the hills we go, crashing into trees!  The snow is turning red, I think I’m almost dead, and now I’m in a hospital with stitches in my head!”

“Sometimes I really worry about you,” Astrid shook her head as she tied a string to the end of the tree.  “Now, one of us is going to push the tree up and the other is going to pull it up with the string from the balcony.” Astrid pointed the upper level of the house and the balcony that overlooked the living room.

“Out of curiosity, why does it have to be up by Christmas?  I mean, other than tradition.” Hayden took a sip of the water he had put on the table.

“Because our Christmas party,” Astrid replied quickly.  “Every Christmas we give a party to thank my Dad’s supporters and contributors.  And I’m glad you brought that up, because you’re going to need a Tux.”

Hayden choked on his water.  “A what?”

“A tuxedo.  It’s actually more of a ball than a party.  I had to learn to dance just for the occasion.”

“But…I can’t dance.”

“So don’t dance.” Astrid finished tying the twine to the top of the Christmas tree, and backed toward the staircase, unraveling the string as she went.  She finally made it the top and pulled the string taunt.  “On three, push the tree up!” she called down to him, wrapping the spool around the railing for leverage.  “One…two…”

In anticipation, Hayden heaved the tree up, succeeding in only making it fall on the other side of the couch.

“Hayden!  I said push it ‘on three!’ Not before three!” Astrid scowled at him. 

“Well, I’m sorry, I was trying to anticipate.” Hayden climbed over the couch and grabbed the tree top. 

“Never mind.” Astrid shook her head.  “Push when I _say_ three.  One…two…three!” Astrid yanked on the string and Hayden heaved the tree up, and the top of the tree when straight into the air.

Which was exactly what they wanted, except for the rest of the tree stayed on the ground.  Astrid reeled back, as she had not prepared for such a light weight.  The two stood staring at the top of the tree, now swinging back and forth as it hung from the balcony. 

Hayden sucked in a deep breath and began to sing, “Oh, Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree, how _separate_ are your branches.”

“Are you _serious_ right now!?” Astrid groaned, plopping down on the floor and laying back in exasperation. 

“Perfectly.” Hayden lay back on the couch with a groan.  “Now what do we do?”

“I don’t know.” Astrid grumbled back, still sprawled out on the ground. 

They heard the front door open and close, and a man shouted “I’m home!”

“Daddy!” Astrid shrieked and jumped up, sliding, literally sliding, down the banister to greet her father.  She rounded the corner and jumped on him, and he laughed and hugged her back.

“How’s my princess?” Dustin asked with a chuckle.  “I’m sorry I didn’t come home when you broke your leg.  Are you alright now?”

“I’m fine.  I’m just glad you’re finally home!” She hugged her father again, noticing that Hayden had walked into the entryway. 

“Oh, Daddy, this is Hayden,” she pulled back and gestured to the young man.

“I’m glad to finally meet you,” Dustin reached forward and shook Hayden’s hand, and the boy smiled in return.

“You too.”

Dustin the way toward the living room.  “Now, where is that beautiful wife of mine?  Because…oh, Christmas tree…” The man stopped and stared at the festive disaster.

“That’s exactly what I said, sir,” Hayden remarked, suddenly realizing just how much of a mess he and Astrid had made.  The ornaments were scattered in every direction.  The top of the tree was hanging from the balcony, and the rest was draped over one end of the couch.  There was only one thing to be said.

Oh, Christmas tree.


	21. Perfectly Mean

With Dustin home the week until Christmas passed so quickly that no one ever had the chance to be impatient.  Christmas morning was slow, everyone enjoyed the chance to sleep in and take their time coming downstairs.  At about ten o’clock Astrid came downstairs wrapped in her favorite blanket. 

Her parents were snuggled on the couch together, sipping their coffee and chatting with each other. 

“Merry Christmas, Princess,” Dustin greeted patting the couch beside him and inviting Astrid to join them.  “Did you sleep well?”

Astrid nodded sleepily.  “Once I got to sleep, at least.”

“Oh?”

“Hayden and I stayed up until three criticizing Hallmark movies.  I think they’ve run out of half-decent plot lines.  There was this one about a dog who was actually Santa but the dog got put down and the kid had until midnight to find a miracle to bring the dog back…it was awful.” Astrid yawned.  “That one definitely wasn’t worth watching.”

“Let me guess,” Her father said excitedly.  “Was it called…Santa Dog?”

“Yep.  So original right?”

“Santa Dog was awful,” Hayden put in from the staircase.  “You are talking about that movie, right?”

Astrid nodded and yawned again.  “But it wasn’t any worse that the wedding one either.”

“Hallmark Channel should be renamed Cliché Channel,” Hayden muttered as he plopped down in an arm chair, yawning.  “Remind me why we stayed up so late again?”

 “Because we thought the Santa Spy one would be good,” Astrid yawned back.  “Honestly the best one was ‘How the Grinch Saved Christmas.’”

“No, it was totally the one about the coffee shop.  That was the best.”

“You just liked it because the guy kept hitting his head on the hanging pot.”

Hayden smirked sleepily.  “Yeah, that was pretty good.”

“Well,” Gail put in.  “Are the two of you hungry?”

“No,” they chorused, sharing a yawn. 

Gail and Dustin shared a look.  “I don’t think they’ve looked outside yet.” Gail said mischievously, smiling at her husband. 

Hayden sat up and craned his neck to see out the window.  “Hey, it snowed.” Astrid did the same, eyeing the blanket of white.

“Is the snow what you two are all secretive about?” Astrid asked her parents.  “We’ve seen snow before, you know.”

Her parents agreed, but their mischievous smiles remained. 

“What?” Now Astrid was genuinely curious. 

Her mother gestured to the front door, and she and Hayden stood up and walked over, opening it and peaking out into the cold.  There in the snow sat two shiny, new, snowmobiles with big red bows on them. 

They turned around with open mouths, staring at Gail and Dustin in shock.  “Those are for us?” Astrid finally squeaked out, realizing her mother was videoing them with her phone. 

“One for each of you,” Dustin told her with a nod. 

Astrid squealed and raced to her parents, Hayden not far behind.  Hugs and thank-yous were exchanged before Hayden and Astrid tried to race upstairs to change. 

“Now wait just a minute,” Gail stopped them and motioned for them to come back.  “Open those two big square presents first.  And please be careful around the tree.”

The two shared a sheepish grin, remembering how much trouble the Christmas tree had caused them.  They took their respective boxes and tore off the wrapping paper, discovering a helmet for each of them.  Hayden’s was brown and decorated with some leather strips while Astrid was about as colorful as it could be.  She admired the blue and orange swirls and she headed upstairs. 

“I really hope they don’t hurt themselves,” Gail said softly as she watched the two. 

“They have helmets, what’s the worst that could happen?” Dustin said lightheartedly, reaching for a cinnamon roll and passing one to his wife.

Gail took it and scowled at him.  He chuckled. 

Astrid and Hayden spent the morning racing around the pastures, and finally stumbled inside, cold, starving and wet, but happy.  They changed into dry clothes and sat down for lunch, which consisted of a delicious casserole, fresh bread, and salad, with Apple Pie for dessert.  Astrid couldn’t help but wait for dinner when the turkey and roast beef would be served, but she said nothing.

The four finally gathered in the living room to open the rest of the presents.  Astrid screamed over her tickets for an Icelandic cruise, and Hayden was completely speechless over the high-class camera he was given. 

By the end of the presents, everyone was ready to sit back and relax, but Hayden had other plans.

“There’s no way I could ever match what you all have done for me,” he started, “but I’d like to give you a present now, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Gail smiled, “but you didn’t need to.”

“I actually finished it last night, so I didn’t have time to wrap it.” He reached behind the tree and produced a canvass.  He passed it to Gail, and Astrid stood up to look at it.

No one said a word as they studied the painting. 

Astrid finally broke the silence.  “Wow,” she breathed.

The large canvass featured the Hofferson’s house, with horses grazing in the background.  Nova and Hades were sleeping under a tree in the front yard, and Astrid was trotting Stormfly across the driveway, while Gail and Dustin looked on from the porch.  Geometry was rolling in his pen, and Sir Tarlo and Azula were gazing out Astrid’s window.

“Oh, Hayden, this is…this is absolutely beautiful.” Gail said breathlessly, barely glancing up from the picture.

“I am very, very impressed,” Dustin agreed, leaning forward to study the detail.  The shadows on the roof were long, and the sun was just beginning to set in the background.  There were flowers growing along side of the house, and little birds could even be spotted in the trees.

Astrid suddenly glanced up.  “Hey, where are you?”

“Oh, well, I thought that just your family belonged in the picture.”

Astrid scowled.  “Who says you aren’t family?”

Hayden wasn’t sure how to reply. 

“She’s right,” Gail agreed.  “This picture isn’t finished until you are in it.”

Hayden smiled, and Astrid walked him and the painting upstairs to finish it.  He spent the afternoon adding himself and Toothless in the back pasture, basking in the sun just as they had before he had returned home.

Astrid left to get ready for the party in the evening, and read one of her new books as she let her hair sit in curlers.  The sun was setting as she undid the curlers and began to pin her blonde curls up.  One curl simply didn’t want stay in place, and while it usually would have irked her, she found that she didn’t care.  She added a few decorative pearls to the back and finished applying her makeup.  She clipped her dangling diamond earrings on and set the matching necklace aside, deciding to put it on after the dress.

She walked into her closet and took out her evening gown.  She put it on and went back for the necklace, finally slipping on her white, pearl embroidered shoes.  She pulled on her white elbow length gloves, and with one last glance in the mirror, walked out to greet the arriving guests. 

Hayden finally gave up on making his hair behave.  No matter what he did, it would never lay flat.  He sighed and straightened his collar, then walked out of his room and turned down the hall.

His breath caught.  He stared, his heart pounding a million beats a minute.

Astrid stood gazing over the balcony, and he had difficulty believing she was not an angel or other divine being.  She had truly lived up to her name.  Her hair was loosely pinned back.  Her soft pink strapless dress was fitted and embroidered at the top, then flared out in yards of tulle, and made her look like a princess on a pink cloud. 

She suddenly noticed him and turned, smiling.

He still couldn’t breathe.  Her bangs were styled up, and so for the first time he could see every inch of her beautiful face.  Her eyes were like crystals, sparkling in the light of the party.  Thick lashes framed them perfectly, and her lips were a soft rose color. 

“You look nice,” she said, scanning him with her eyes.

He forced himself to answer.  “You too.  More so.”

She rolled her eyes and giggled, motioning for him to follow her downstairs.  She didn’t have to ask him more than once.  He followed her quietly, and stayed in the background for most of the evening, not knowing any of the guests. 

Astrid calmly interacted with everyone else, though seemed to be waiting for something to happen.  Dinner passed and she still kept glancing at the clock.  Nine o’clock came, and she motioned for him to follow her out of the room.  He obeyed, surprised to find her putting on a coat. 

“What are you doing?” he asked, glancing around the dark room. 

“After about nine everyone starts playing cards and it get’s super boring,” she replied.  “But I have one last present for you.” She handed him his coat. 

“Do we have to go outside for it?” he asked, doing as she told him.

She nodded excitedly, walking out the door and into the cold.  She led him silently toward the barn, and finally into it.  Toothless stood in the hallway, a wreath hung around his neck.  He was too busy licking a giant stick of peppermint to notice the newcomers.

“Merry Christmas!” Astrid beamed, gesturing to the horse. 

Hayden jaw dropped.  “Are you giving me…?” He could hardly finish the sentence.

She nodded, her smile only growing bigger.

“Thank you!” he threw his arms around her, and she laughed.

He ran over to his new horse, wrapping his arms around the horse’s neck.  Toothless paused just long enough to nudge him back before returning to his candy.

“Really, Astrid, you don’t know what this means to me,” he smiled at her, patting the Toothless’ muscular shoulder.

“Oh, I think I have some idea,” the mischievous glint that had been in her parents eyes that morning was now in hers. 

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Oh, it’s possible.” She was obviously bursting with excitement.  “I have something else to show you.”

He stepped back, allowing her to take the lead.  She walked up to Toothless, and lifted his head up, motioning Hayden to look at his chin. 

Confused, he stared at Toothless’ bottom lip, and slowly, he was able to make out a faint green line in the dim light.  No.  No.  This couldn’t be.  He slowly fingered the line, breathing heavily.

Toothless tossed his head and brought it down, nosing Hayden’s hand.  His lips curled around the end of the boy’s fingers, staring to suckle them. 

This horse…Toothless…was the foal he and his mother had rescued.   After all these years, he was finally reunited with his favorite little foal. 

The thought was almost too much to take, and he suddenly burst into tears, crumpling to the floor.

“Hayden!” Astrid exclaimed, dropping to her knees beside him.  “Aren’t you happy?”

“Happy?” He choked out between sobs, not even trying to control himself.  “I’ve never been this happy in my life!”

Astrid smiled slightly, and gently wrapped her arms around his shoulders, allowing him to cry his heart out on the barn floor.  She had known that knowing who Toothless was would mean a lot to him, but she didn’t know it meant this much. 

He finally started to calm down, and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.  “I’m sorry for crying all over you,” he chuckled nervously. 

“It’s okay,” she smiled, fixing his jacket collar.  “At least you didn’t sneeze on me.” She laughed as he blushed.  “You know, we could be one of those sappy Hallmark movies,” she told him, helping him stand.

 _Except this is where the couple kisses._ Hayden didn’t dare say his thoughts aloud.  “Thank you, Astrid.  I don’t know how else to say it.  You don’t know what this means.”

“You’re welcome,” she smiled again, slowly turning to leave.  “Now spend some time with _your_ horse.”

“Astrid, wait!” He grabbed her hand and pulled her back, not realizing what he was doing.  What _was_ he doing?  Her lips were so close…he could kiss her right then.  No.  He shouldn’t kiss her, and yet he realized he was leaning closer, and closer until…

Their lips met. Time froze. His fingers traced her hand, and he slowly realized that her lipstick was flavored.  His other hand found its way up to her cheek, gently tracing her perfectly soft skin.  His heart was pounding…he was kissing Astrid Hofferson.  He was digging his own grave.  He should stop, but the overwhelming emotions pounding away in his chest refused to let him.

Astrid finally pulled back, surprised to find her hands on his chest.  She smiled shyly and left the barn without a word. 

Hayden numbly turned back to his horse.  “I’m an idiot, aren’t I?”

Toothless snorted his agreement.

An hour later, Hayden sat in his room, messing with the settings on his new camera.  Sir Tarlo was curled up next to him, purring contentedly.  Hayden smiled, leaning back on the mound of pillows behind him.  A knock sounded at the door.

“Come in,” he called, sitting up to see who it was.

Astrid peaked her head in.  His cheeks started to burn as he thought over the kiss he had given her.  He had no right to do it, and he would probably hear about it from her father. 

“Hey,” she greeted, coming in completely.

“Hi,” he replied awkwardly.  “Did you need something?”

“Yeah, I wanted to see if you would be in my annual Christmas selfie,” She held up her phone.  “Every Christmas I take a special selfie and post it, and I try to include something, or in this case, someone, who my year really special.”

“Oh.  Then yeah.  Sure.” He sat up and put the camera aside.

“You’ll have to wear these.” She passed him a pair of antlers while adjusting her own elf hat.  He chuckled and put them on.

She sat down beside him, opening up her camera.  They both smiled.  “One, two, three!” She clicked the button and brought the phone down to inspect the picture.  “I don’t like it.  One more.”

He shrugged and nodded.  She held up the phone again, tapping the screen to focus it.  “One…two…”

Three never came.  Instead, she planted a kiss on his cheek and clicked the button, capturing every bit of his pleased surprise.  She glanced at the picture for a moment and stood.

“Thanks,” she said smartly.  “Keep the antlers.” With that she was gone.

A few minutes later his phone buzzed, and he opened it up to read the notification.  It was Instagram, telling him that Astrid had tagged him.  Curious, he opened up the picture.  It already had nearly 100 likes, and Hayden scrolled down to read the caption. 

“ _So happy to spend Christmas with this dork!  I totally kicked his butt in a snowmobile race earlier… anyway, Merry Christmas, Hiccup!”_

Hiccup.  It felt good to be called Hiccup again.  Dork, not so much, but he knew she was kidding, especially since there were two hearts at the end of the caption.  So he opened up the comments and typed: “ _Dork?  Aw, come on.  You’re so mean!”_

 _“Yeah, and you love it,”_ Came her swift reply. 

It was true, he did love it.  He loved every bit of her.  Her shining blue eyes, her spunk, her determination.  He loved her smile…good grief, he’d fallen head over heels in love with her smile.  He loved how utterly and completely perfect she was.  Yes, Astrid was mean, but perfectly so.

**_THE END_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I am posting the last chapter to this story! Wow...it's just so bizarre. But here we are at the end. I do have some ideas for sequels, but I doubt I will ever have time to write them.
> 
> But I want to thank each and every one of you for your support! (And all those lovely comments were definitely appreciated!)
> 
> Thank you, thank you, and thank you again! I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did writing it!
> 
> ~Spinofflady


End file.
